RHETORIC AS A WAY OF BECOMING: PRAXIS-ORIENTED RHETORICAL CRITICISM AS METHOD OF RHEOTRICAL ANALYSIS
Date of Award
5-1-2022
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Communication Studies
First Advisor
Gray, Jonathan
Abstract
Rhetoric is analyzed primarily through lenses that seek to understand and acknowledge the identities, ideologies, and practices present within a given situation—otherwise understood as the available means of persuasion. Instead, I argue that rhetorical critics should engage in praxis-oriented rhetorical criticism where the critic foregrounds their lived experience as part of their analysis. Utilizing methods advanced by autoethnographers and performance studies scholars, I posit that the praxeological critic manifest the relevant, critical positionalities that inform their analysis through critical dialogic reflexivity, the consensual-conflictual emplotment and theorization of self, and the use of criticism as critical-self-portraiture. As such, rhetoric and rhetorical criticism exist not only as a method of being, but as a way of becoming.
Access
This dissertation is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.