When the newly appointed professor of medicine at the University of Rinteln, Johann Peter Lotichius (1598-1669), delivered an oration entitled "Oratio super fatalibus hoc tempore academiarum in Germania periculis" ("Oration on the pernicious dangers to the universities of contemporary Germany") at said university in February…

Colleges and universities currently face challenges in the form of calls for increased accountability, clear economic outcomes and return on investments in education. These challenges emanate from many sectors, including students and families, employers in industry, and state and federal governments. The language of these calls for accountability…

This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women's academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence…

Recently, genre studies have become increasingly important in the area of rhetorical criticism. This method of analysis is based on the assumption that rhetorics vary situationally, like situations will produce like rhetorics, antecedent rhetorical events significantly affect the creative product, and analogy is more important than anomaly when…

Offers theoretical distinctions among the terms sacred, myth, ideology, and political myth. Analyzes representative speeches and debates on imperialism in the United States and Great Britain and contends that the distinction between the two rhetorical typologies concurrently existing in each nation account for the dominance of imperialist rhetoric…

Describe the Roman concepts of "decorum" and "ornatus." Analyzes a speech from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," showing how these concepts advance plot, deepen character, and create expectations. Demonstrates how these concepts are useful in the criticism of American public address by applying them to Ronald Reagan's…

Examines Churchill's use of archetypal metaphors in his speeches from 1930 to 1945. (MH)

Provides a biographical sketch of Barbara Jordan and describes her keynote address to the 1976 Democratic Convention in terms of the rhetorical situation and the rhetorical strategies she used. (MH)

Analyzes Wilson's speech. Considers his background and the following aspects of the speech: occasion, organization and ideas, proofs, delivery, style, and effectiveness. (PD)

Analyzes, from a French historical and political perspective, the nationally televised speeches of President Charles DeGaulle between 1958-69 and cites the emotional appeals he used in his attempts to restore dignity and grandeur to the French nation. (MH)

Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech, a response to charges brought against the "Nixon fund," was primarily an effort to explain the behavior of Eisenhower's 1952 presidential-campaign staff. The effectiveness of this speech was largely due to Nixon's self-disclosure within the context of the speech's narrative mode. In…

Examines the main political-rhetorical events of the 1980 presidential campaign: the rise and fall of various candidates, convention highlights, and the campaign from Labor Day to November 4 with special attention to the debates. Available from City News Publishing Co., Box 606, Southold, New York 11971; sc $1.25. (PD)

Pursues Kenneth Burke's conceptions of piety and appropriateness. Argues for propriety as the master term of rhetorical completion, assimilating style and argument to a common goal. Suggests in a case study of Voltairine de Cleyre's speech, "The Fruit of Sacrifice," that even radical text might be self-justifying by creating its own…

Outlines the development and final form of Kenneth Burke's notion of the Preconscious and integrates it with his dramatistic method. Explains how that integration supplements previous critical insights into the immediate and long-term effects of Jonathan Edwards' powerful sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." (SR)

Emphasizes the importance of orality, a dimension of textual authenticity, that can influence the content, the form of a speech transcript, and the act of criticism. Demonstrates, with Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, that incorporation of orality does not necessarily provide answers to all of the critic's questions. (SR)