Critical-Rhetorical Ethnography: Rethinking the Place and Process of Rhetoric

Abstract

Rhetorical scholarship has relied upon textual criticism as a method of examining discourse. However, in the critical turn, rhetorical theory and praxis have been reconsidered, especially in regard to the types and locations worthy of rhetorical examination. Looking toward vernacular rhetorical discourses, rhetorical scholars examine locally situated discourses as they articulate against oppressive macrocontexts. In this essay, I offer critical-rhetorical ethnography as a method for exploring such discourses in the field of argumentation, using the concepts of invention, kairos, and phronesis. The method offers rhetorical scholars a set of theoretical and methodological guidelines for observing and participating within vernacular advocacy. Finally, I use my time with the health advocacy group, DanceSafe, as an exemplar of the method, illustrating its ability to gauge rhetorical effects, advocacy, and learned wisdom.

Words that wound, bodies that shield: Corporeal responses to Westboro Baptist Church’s hate speech

“…The inclusion of my field notes alongside these media texts follows Aaron Hess's argument that qualitative methods such as ethnographic observation are useful for understanding rhetoric. 7 The quotations used in the analysis serve as exemplars of the themes I discerned from a reading of all of the above materials.…”

“It’s just a cycle”: Resilience, poetics, and intimate disruptions

“…As Susanne K. Langer (1953) argues "[The] power of words is really astounding…This rhythm of language is a mysterious trait that probably bespeaks biological unities of thought and feeling which are entirely unexplored as yet" (p. 258). Attending to the histories and ecologies that articulate the concepts we use is important in all scholarship and may be particularly crucial in engaged rhetorical fieldwork that seeks invention from within (Hess, 2011).…”

Raining on SeaWorld’s Parade: PETA’s Direct Action and Public Interest Communication

“…2 Indeed, although some PIC rhetoric is overt, with organizations making written/spoken statements and inviting others to join them, some of it is implicit, as in PETA's silent protests or costumed performances. The written texts surrounding PETA's animal rights activism are clearly important parts of its persuasive messages, but so much of its argument is experienced by its viewers/participants, where text becomes "something living, breathing, and operating within unique spaces and received by particular audiences" (Hess, 2011). In general, then, focusing on the unruly bodies of PETA activists helps us understand the affective, emotional, biological, and psychological qualities of material rhetoric (DeLuca, 1999b, Landau, 2014Rice, 2008).…”