A (Brief) Review of Rhetoric
We’ve covered a few different definitions and concepts of rhetoric and I wanted to do a brief rundown so that we can use these concepts to think about Google Doodles!
Rhetoric
Rhetoric investigates how:
-language is used to organize and maintain social groups,
-construct meanings and identities,
-coordinate behavior,
-mediate power,
-produce change, and
-create knowledge.
Rhetoricians often assume that language is
-constitutive (we shape and are shaped by language),
-dialogic (it exists in the shared territory between self and other),
closely connected to thought (mental activity as “inner speech”) and integrated with social, cultural and economic practices.
Epideictic Rhetoric — (from Writing in the Moment article)
Epideictic discourse, however, is oriented toward the present because those who give ceremonial speeches “praise or blame in view of the state of things existing at the time” (I.3.18–19).
Aristotle, qtd in Writing in the Moment
If we look at social media as a type of epideictic discourse that frames digital identity in relation to different digital communities, then we must ask: Who controls that identity? Do those of us who use social media have full control of our own identities?
-WITM — Can we think about this in terms of Google Doodle?
Cyberfeminism
Christine Tulley (2009) wrote, “cyberfeminism can be loosely defined as ‘a multilayered movement dedicated … to thinking about gender, gender roles and their representation in the computer world’” (p. 110). Cyberfeminism can take many forms — from activist movements in online spaces to more mundane explorations of the relationship between gender and technology. Mary Hocks (2009) noted that “as an area of rhetorical study, cyberfeminism offers researchers and students opportunities to develop activist rhetorics about … gender and other identities, and cultural practices” (p. 235). Whether viewed as a movement or a theoretical orientation, cyberfeminism becomes a way to understand the complexities of gender in online spaces.
