Muses on such topics as the importance of teaching students about the craft of poetry and of helping them see that life can turn into literature. (GT)

This study analyzed girls' reactions to Disney's animated feature film "Pocahontas" in light of conclusions drawn from a previous critical textual analysis of the movie. The research addressed three questions: (1) how do Disney's claims to creation of positive prosocial representations of women and Native Americans in the movie…

Sharing some organizational frameworks, this paper presents two groups of diagrams that have been employed in various communication classes to illustrate how theoretical understandings can be used as paradigms to help organize information in a more clarified manner. The first part of the paper discusses diagrams which are directly relevant to…

Because canon formation directly influences curriculum construction, classical Greek rhetorical studies must make an assessment of how women's presence in these historical discourses has been at best marginalized, at worst erased. The structural oppression of women as a class and the institution of slavery need to be included in school curricula…

This exploration of what feminism has to contribute to pragmatism, and vice versa, considers the idea of contextuality through an examination of the role of current pragmatists, such as Cornel West and Richard Rorty, and current feminists, including Charlene Haddock Siegfried, Maxine Greene, and Seyla Benhabib. To set the stage historically for…

The purpose of this paper is to create a guide for beginning coaches of the "communication analysis" event in forensics and to attempt to arouse interest in the activity. According to the paper, the American Forensic Association defines communication analysis as an original speech designed to offer an explanation and/or evaluation of a…

This paper examines the rhetorical factors behind the success of Ernest Angley, non-denominational televangelist in Akron, Ohio. After describing the historical background of Angley and Grace Cathedral, the paper identifies some of the dominant beliefs that Angley espouses in his preaching. The paper then explains how these themes work in…

Despite literally tens of thousands of rounds of debate competition over a number of years, little insight into argumentation theory has resulted. Debate as practiced by college debating teams has become a laboratory for perfecting itself. Permitting the divergence of debate from argumentation forfeits an ideal opportunity to study argumentation.…

When the film "The Last Waltz" was released in 1978 the rock music press lost itself in comparisons of the performances of the rock group. The Band's many famous guest artists, while movie critics, for the most part, considered it only a concert film. Few critics saw the film as an integral part of director Martin Scorsese's continuing…

In his analysis of Cicero's "Philippics," Cecil Wooten (1983) describes the strategy the Roman advocate used in a rhetorical situation of national crisis as a contest of black and white, the struggle of good against evil; at stake is the very existence of the civilization that he is defending. Choices offered in crisis situations can be…

One of the central problems in the study of fictional prose is that of distinguishing between mere linguistic regularity, which in itself is of no interest to literary studies, and regularity which is significant for the text in which it is found. General criteria for determining whether any particular instance of linguistic prominence is likely…

There are two views of the rhetorical principle of "kairos," or timeliness: first, the deterministic notion of "kairos" as a preordained "right" time in which certain activities are appropriate, and second, the relativistic notion of "kairos" as an exercise "in the nick of time." A satisfactory…

The rhetorical strategies of the speechmaker become more interesting as the involvement and risk assumed by the audience increase. Battle orations given by military leaders to their troops just before fighting the enemy provide the ultimate in audience involvement and risk. Of some 200 chronicles of northern Europe from the twelfth and thirteenth…

Although both literary study and discourse analysis examine texts and oral discourses, literary study tends to emphasize the totality of the text while discourse analysis seeks to isolate manageable elements and structures to validate hypotheses about mental processes. Interaction has recently occurred between the two disciplines in…

Noting that a shared social reality that is constituted, sustained, and modified in symbolic interaction is central to life in an organization, this paper contends that contemporary developments in rhetorical theory make possible careful descriptions of how discourse functions in maintaining and changing that social reality. The paper demonstrates…