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Most scholarship on political rhetoric views it as an exercise in changing the minds of an audience. However, we see numerous examples of political speech aimed at those who already agree with the speaker, to motivate them to act on judgments they have already made. This kind of discourse is often dismissed as pandering, or the "red meat" rabble‐rousing that contributes to polarization. I draw upon Frederick Douglass to render a more complete account of this speech, which I term "hortatory rhetoric." Douglass draws upon the prophetic tradition of Black Christian preaching to develop an alternative for when persuasion has reached its limit. This kind of speech raises a set of normative difficulties that differ from those raised by the rhetoric of persuasion, which Douglass helps us to think through. He provides a framework for understanding when it might be permissible or even desirable to abandon persuasion for exhortation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to connect Arabic theoretical linguistics with modern linguistics, not by disregarding the present and attributing the later theories solely to Arab grammarians and rhetoricians, as has often been assumed. Rather, this research aims to qualitatively explore the linguistic accomplishments of ancient Arab scholars from a contemporary perspective and identify commonalities and controversies between past and present perspectives. Specifically, this study focuses on Sibawayh's interpretation of functional linguistics and its final formulation by Jakobson. Additionally, the study aims to analyse and compare the principles of language and grammar advocated by ancient Arab linguists and contemporary linguists to deepen our understanding of language and its role in human society. The results of this study reveal that while Sibawayh concentrated on the analysis of structure and function in Arabic grammar, modern linguists such as Jakobson have broadened their approach to include a wider range of perspectives including sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge the contributions of Sibawayh as his work formed the foundation for language theories in general and linguistics in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues for attention in cultural rhetorics scholarship to stories as effective civic pedagogical tools informed by participatory knowledge-making practices. Drawing on a multiyear "mobile cinema democracy project" based on the physical circulation across Africa, Europe, and North America of a successful African democratic story told in the multi-award-winning documentary An African Election, I attend to both the documentary and its larger contextual project, "A Political Safari: An African Adventure in Democracy Building." I demonstrate the ways that the African storytelling traditions of collaboration upon which this project rests offer us cultural rhetoricians key opportunities to reimagine inclusive knowledgemaking practices in using stories as civic pedagogies. My analysis reveals how such knowledge-making practices might orient our work against the grain of hierarchical, exclusionary, colonial practices and toward decolonial approaches that are truly participatory and inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "Our Story Begins Here" (2014) the CR Theory Lab offers key concepts related to cultural rhetorics such as constellating and relationality. Drawing from decolonial theory and practice, these concepts allow cultural rhetoricians to develop a scholarly practice that is reflective of the cultural community they are a part of and write for and to address the long histories and cultural practices of the land they dwell on. Where the CR Theory Lab is committed to a decolonial practice invested in the theories and lived experiences of the tribal nations people of Turtle Island, they also offer that it isn't the only approach to cultural rhetorics. I argue that both scenarios reflect a larger political and cultural issue regarding how the occupied territories of Turtle Island (also known as the United States) don't know what to do with tribal nations people, our fight for sovereignty, or our ongoing effort for cultural continuance. In other words, I will make an argument that maps how our discipline's approach to decolonial theory, cultural rhetorics, and Indigenous rhetorics reflects the ongoing efforts of survivance and resurgence of Indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James 2:18-26 has long been a troublesome passage for interpreters. Since James Hardy Ropes wrote his commentary in 1916, the majority of scholars have regarded it as an example of diatribe. Since, however, the interlocutor seems to agree with James, exegetes have had to propose a variety of interpretive maneuvers to make sense of the passage, each of which creates its own problems. I propose that we recon-sider how the verses function within the broader context. If we lay aside Ropes's view that this is an example of diatribe and regard it instead as a challenge to honor, the entire passage makes sense and flows neatly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REMAH Journal is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Representations of exorcism in farces written and performed in the sixteenth-century Low Countries at first sight merely testify to their authors' propensity for the grotesque and critical stance towards Roman Catholic rituals. This paper argues that these farcical exorcism episodes, besides ridiculing exorcism and expressing scepticism in matters of demonology, also undermined beliefs concerning the potency of language. Analysis of the ritual as represented in farce and the metadiscursive comments surrounding it points to a conception of the ceremony as "administering" inherently powerful words to an object. This conception is also reflected in a contemporaneous "speech act theory" avant la lettre which attributes autonomous powers to words. Viewed against a backdrop of historical and ethnographic documentation on this type of discourse, this notion is likely to be an outgrowth of perceptions underlying ritual discourse activities cross-culturally. Discrediting the belief that words are capable of affecting reality autonomously, the playwrights may have advocated an understanding of language as a fully man-made instrument, the use and efficacy of which are entirely human-controlled processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Anbar University for Languages & Literature / Magallat Gami'at Al-Anbar Li-Lugat Wa-al-Adabl is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Because many Americans' encounters with homelessness are limited to what they see in entertainment and news media, this study examines how those representations have changed over time through an analysis of 35 years of films about homelessness. Analyzing the ways that homelessness appears in film advances our understanding of the role of the public screen in contemporary political life. We argue here that rhetoricians would benefit from considering the public screen a contextual field and expanding what this field includes. Additionally, we identify two key dimensions of the likely contextual fields audiences may draw on in subsequent public deliberation about homelessness—visibility and agency—and offer an approach to the rhetorical analysis of film that can illuminate such fields for a wide array of social and political issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the use of antithesis and paradox in the Epistle to Diognetus. The text employs these rhetorico-philosophical techniques in order to provoke interest in readers, whether pagan or Christian, and lure them toward deeper inquiry and understanding of the truths the author thinks Christianity teaches. That is, the anticipated effects of antithesis and paradox as classical rhetorical tools, as described by ancient rhetoricians and philosophers, promotes the overall protreptic goal of the text. The antitheses capture the audience's attention, while the pervasive use of paradoxical language and reasoning guides it toward deeper inquiry about Christianity. Not only are Christian existence and God's plan of salvation paradoxical, but the author's very understanding of how to comprehend these paradoxes contradicts the expectations created by classical philosophical notions of paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay elaborates a trio of object lessons that aim to complicate, reorient, and upend how rhetoricians encounter the rhetorical work of objects. The object lessons follow the history and politics of a set of archeological objects taken from the site now known as Machu Picchu in the early twentieth century and returned to Peru after much debate in the early 21st century. Over one hundred years, their nature, purpose, and proper location became subjects of intense debate and, eventually, the debate itself became fused to the objects: they became either national treasures or scientific objects; either evidence of heritage or specimens for research. Tracking that history and the multitude of worlds that emerge from it, this article demonstrates that rhetoricians need to account for the "things" that colonialism has produced and the ways those things act in public life to overdetermine settler colonial perspectives. It draws attention to the worlds precluded by a debate premised on Peruvian national identity and U.S. scientific imperialism as twin poles, and it turns, instead, to Andean theories of the pluriverse and broader Indigenous relational theories to illustrate how rhetoric's ontological turn has, often, also been a colonial return. Working against that turn, this article aims to unsettle rhetorical studies' objects, places, and theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sophist, with its ostensible goal of locating and defining the sophist, is among the Platonic dialogues often read by rhetoricians. Plato's Timaeus, less so. This has been an oversight because the Timaeus provides a metaphysical explanation for Plato's anxieties about sophistry and rhetoric. When read together, the Sophist and Timaeus warn of the dangers of sophistry, though they do so in contrasting ways. The Sophist directs us to the external world while the Timaeus directs us inward toward an eternal, unchanging reality. We learn from the Timaeus that sophistry causes both corporeal and metaphysical wandering, a type of motion which runs counter to that of the natural order of the universe and which Plato associates with opportunism and instability. He contrasts wandering with the circular motion associated with philosophical steadfastness. Reading these dialogues in tandem reveals a set of overlapping dichotomies which connect the Timaeus to other dialogues in which Plato addresses sophistry and rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]