The Rhetoric of Witnessing and Heckling: A Case Study in Ethnorhetoric
Jacobs, Curtis Scott
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/77265
Description
Title
The Rhetoric of Witnessing and Heckling: A Case Study in Ethnorhetoric
Author(s)
Jacobs, Curtis Scott
Issue Date
1982
Department of Study
Speech Communication
Discipline
Speech Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Speech Communication
Language
eng
Abstract
This study examines a rhetorical event that occurs between preacher Jed Smock and his student audiences. The study illustrates an ethnorhetorical approach to rhetorical criticism. A naturalistic methodology is used to capture the nature of the rhetorical transactions in situ and of the perspectives which the participants themselves bring to bear in understanding and acting within the event. These perspectives offer their occupants radically different dramatic structurings of the event. Each perspective is reflexively organized within a system of interdependencies among the perspectives. The way in which occupants of different perspectives act toward and interpret the event works to preserve the sense of objectivity each occupant assigns to the drama he finds in the event. The result is that participants orchestrate their transactions by virtue of a fundamental relativity of meanings.
The properties of this event are general features of the genre called "confrontation rhetoric." The findings of this study considerably alter traditional understandings of confrontation rhetoric. Specifically, this study confirms the view that confrontation rhetoric is dominated by consummatory motives of a fundamentally moral nature and that confrontation rhetoric occurs where common ground between the parties is dissolved.
This rhetorical event is an anomaly for the theory and practice of rhetorical criticism. The method of textual inspection and the assumption of an objective meaning in the discourse fail here. The practice of content analysis and the assumption of a referential relation between rhetoric and rhetorical situation also fail. The presumed transparency for the critic of participant understandings and the assumption that a consensus of meaning is both a precondition and a natural end of rhetoric fail as well. The methods and assumptions of an ethnorhetorical approach are required to encompass the types of events discovered in this study.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
