Explores whether continuity or discontinuity is more appropriate to describe the particular relation between Aristotle's theory or rhetoric and Stuart Hall's ideology theory. Argues for inclusion of ideology theory within the rhetorical canon. Suggests that, if Aristotle's rhetorical theory belongs in the canon, Hall's theory also belongs because…

Examines the 1984 party platforms from the perspective of Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm. Concludes that though the two party's narratives followed different strategies, they both displayed the internal consistency required by Fisher's perspective as they reflected transcendent values that were both relevant to and consistent with party…

Argues that rhetorical criticism has approached the new persuasions and propaganda of 20th century America only with great difficulty, and that a greater understanding of the relationships between the new managerial rhetoric and the old criticism will resolve discrepant critical perspectives on modern social influence. (JAD)

Argues that evoking the maternal archetype as a unifying principle to motivate the protection and sustenance of the environment confounds womanhood with motherhood, and fails to honor the complexity of motherhood as an ideologically and socially constructed institution. Maintains that a gender-neutral metaphor may more effectively serve both the…

Finds that two primary archetypal metaphors--death and rebirth--emerged in the public debate concerning management of the 1988 Yellowstone forest fires. Argues that the crisis brought two competing views of public land management to the forefront: the ecological view, and the human-centered view. (SR)

Discusses Kenneth Burke's "A Grammar of Motives" and why its largest chapter, "The Dialectic Constitutions," is central to understanding the book's assumptions. Discusses also Burke's pentad and the steps of his philosophical argument. (PRA)

Asserts that Kenneth Burke's dualistic theory of constitutions pictures selves and instruments as creating and as transcending one another. Calls for a methodology dealing simultaneously with principles of permanence and change. Shows that the methodology can be formalized through rereading Burke's writings. Ties these ideas to Burke's view that…

Demonstrates the relationship of disease and language in Kenneth Burke's work, tracing it to a chronic symbolic condition, the symptoms of which are found in his frequent recourse to the genre of the appendix and its close relations--the postscript, the addendum, and the afterward. Discusses Burke's work from a feminist and anatomical perspective.…

Engages in ironic play with the confessional mode to find out how to think and talk after the French feminist confrontation with philosophy. Confesses a desire for philosophic thinking, then seeks from hermeneutics the secret at the heart of its enterprise. (SR)

Traces an encounter with Mikhail Bakhtin during the process of reading and writing a dissertation. Refocuses attention from "Bakhtin" as authoritative text to the reader. Reappropriates Bakhtin in service of a feminist practice of reading. (SR)

Argues that Plato's representations of women transmit from previous tradition positive views of feminine activities such as weaving, conceiving, midwifery, giving birth, and nurturing. Asks at what point the discovery of Plato's appropriation of the feminine and female itself becomes appropriate. (SR)

Argues that by rereading Helene Cixous's "The Laugh of Medusa" as a rhetoric--that is, an essay which posits what can and must be done by women if they are to intervene effectively in the public sphere through written or oral discourse--both rhetorical and feminist theory and criticism are enriched. (SR)

Takes up criticisms directed at Jurgen Habermas's conception of the self or moral agency, his assumptions about the generalizability of human interests, and the supposed utopianism of his theory. Argues that in each case more charitable and attractive readings of his position are possible and desirable. (SR)

Establishes that narrative theorists of the Hellenistic period described the ill-defined technique of architectonic parallelism by way of its absence, criticizing less elaborated works as unfinished and half-finished. Offers two narrative complexes from the "Gospel of Mark" as case examples of his assumptions of audience awareness as a…

Argues for the interdependence of theory and practice where rhetoric is concerned. Suggests certain inventional possibilities, when critical discourse engages controversial cases of rhetorical practice. (PRA)