In the last 6 years, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been undergoing fundamental political reinvention. Scholars of language, literacy, and rhetoric can learn much from the study of rhetorical histories. Accordingly, a brief rhetorical history of these upheavals, particularly those in…

Provoking violent controversy, Susan Sontag's speech, "The Lesson of Poland," is an example of subversive rhetoric. Delivered at a February 6, 1982, show of support for the recently oppressed Polish people, Sontag's speech, like other modernist writing, did not seek a consensus with the audience, but challenged its whole scheme of…

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of its satellite regimes, Poland, among other nations, has been engaged in a process of wholesale national reinvention. An analysis of this reinvention is instructive for scholars of language because it is largely a rhetorical process. It is aimed at supplying a new set of collectively…