The Rhetorical Foundations Of Society

The Rhetorical Foundations Of Society
Author: Ernesto Laclau
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-05-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1781681708

The essays collected in this volume develop the theoretical perspective initiated in Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s classic Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Central to the argument of The Rhetorical Foundations of Society is the establishment of rhetorical tropes—such as metaphor, metonymy and catachresis—as the ‘non-foundational’ grounds of society. From this basis, Laclau explores the state of social relations in today’s heterogeneous society. Employing analytical philosophy from both phenomenological and structuralist traditions, he seeks to locate an ontological terrain for interpersonal relationships. Further, he investigates the definition of social antagonism in an increasingly globalized world, where the proliferation of conflicts and points of rupture erodes crucial links between the social subjects postulated by classical social analysis.

The Rhetorical Foundations Of Society

The Rhetorical Foundations Of Society
Author: Ernesto Laclau
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-05-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1781682186

The essays collected in this volume develop the theoretical perspective initiated in Laclau and Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy in three main directions. First, by exploring the specificity of social antagonisms and answering the question ‘What is an antagonistic relation?’, an issue which has become increasingly crucial in our globalized world, where the proliferation of conflicts and points of rupture is eroding their links to the social subjects postulated by classical social analysis. This leads the author to a second line of questioning: what is the ontological terrain that allows us to conceive the nature of social relations in our heterogeneous world, a task that he addresses with theoretical instruments coming from analytical philosophy and from the phenomenological and structuralist traditions. Finally, central to the argument of the book is the basic role attributed to rhetorical movements – metaphor, metonymy, catachresis – in shaping the ‘non-foundational’ grounds of society.

Hegemony And Socialist Strategy

Hegemony And Socialist Strategy
Author: Ernesto Laclau
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-01-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1781681546

In this hugely influential book, Laclau and Mouffe examine the workings of hegemony and contemporary social struggles, and their significance for democratic theory. With the emergence of new social and political identities, and the frequent attacks on Left theory for its essentialist underpinnings, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy remains as relevant as ever, positing a much-needed antidote against ‘Third Way’ attempts to overcome the antagonism between Left and Right.

On Populist Reason

On Populist Reason
Author: Ernesto Laclau
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2018-09-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1788731336

A philosophical and political exploration of the construction of popular identities In this highly original and influential work, Ernesto Laclau focuses on the construction of popular identities and how “the people” emerge as a collective actor. Skilfully combining theoretical analysis with a myriad of empirical references from numerous historical and geographical contexts, he offers a critical reading of the existing literature on populism, demonstrating its dependency on the theorists of “mass psychology,” such as Taine and Freud. On Populist Reason is essential reading for all those interested in the question of political identities in the present day.

Participatory Critical Rhetoric

Participatory Critical Rhetoric
Author: Michael Middleton
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2015-12-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1498513816

Increasingly, rhetorical scholars are using fieldwork and other ethnographic, performance, and qualitative methods to access, document, and analyze forms of everyday in situ rhetoric rather than using already documented texts. In this book, the authors argue that participatory critical rhetoric, as an approach to in situ rhetoric, is a theoretically, methodologically, and praxiologically robust approach to critical rhetorical studies. This book addresses how participatory critical rhetoric furthers understanding of the significant role that rhetoric plays in everyday life through expanding the archive of rhetorical practices and texts, emplacing rhetorical critics in direct conversation with rhetors and audiences at the moment of rhetorical invention, and highlighting marginalized voices that might otherwise go unnoticed. This book organizes the theoretical and methodological foundations of participatory critical rhetoric through four vectors that enhance conventional rhetorical approaches: 1) the political commitments of the critic; 2) rhetorical reflexivity and the role of the embodied critic; 3) emplaced rhetoric and the interplay between the field, text, and context; and 4) multiperspectival judgment that is informed by direct participation with rhetors and audiences. In addition to laying the groundwork and advocating for the approach, Participatory Critical Rhetoric also offers significant contributions to rhetorical theory and criticism more broadly by revisiting the field’s understanding of core topics such as role of the critic, text/context, audience, rhetorical effect, and the purpose of criticism. Further, it enhances theoretical conversations about material rhetoric, place/space, affect, intersectional rhetoric, embodiment, and rhetorical reflexivity.

Hegemony How-To

Hegemony How-To
Author: Jonathan Smucker
Publisher: AK Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017-01-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1849352550

A guide to political struggle for a generation that is deeply ambivalent about power. While many activists gravitate toward mere self-expression and identity-affirming rituals at the expense of serious political intervention, Smucker provides an apologia for leadership, organization, and collective power, a moral argument for its cultivation, and a discussion of dilemmas that movements must navigate in order to succeed.

Public Forgetting

Public Forgetting
Author: Bradford Vivian
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2015-10-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0271075007

Forgetting is usually juxtaposed with memory as its opposite in a negative way: it is seen as the loss of the ability to remember, or, ironically, as the inevitable process of distortion or dissolution that accompanies attempts to commemorate the past. The civic emphasis on the crucial importance of preserving lessons from the past to prevent us from repeating mistakes that led to violence and injustice, invoked most poignantly in the call of “Never again” from Holocaust survivors, tends to promote a view of forgetting as verging on sin or irresponsibility. In this book, Bradford Vivian hopes to put a much more positive spin on forgetting by elucidating its constitutive role in the formation and transformation of public memory. Using examples ranging from classical rhetoric to contemporary crises like 9/11, Public Forgetting demonstrates how, contrary to conventional wisdom, communities may adopt idioms of forgetting in order to create new and beneficial standards of public judgment concerning the lessons and responsibilities of their shared past.

Reality By Design

Reality By Design
Author: Joseph Petraglia
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1998-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135692114

An essential resource for understanding cutting edge developments in contemporary education. Using real life examples of educational technology, it explains why rhetorical relations must replace cognitive process as the central focus of education.