Proposes an alternative interpretation of imperial responsibility, founded upon Edmund Burke's rhetorical denunciation of the East India Company in 1783. Shows how Burke constructed a new understanding of imperial responsibility, in which the need to protect foreign peoples from unscrupulous Britons was stressed instead of any sense of racial…

Examines the close formal relationship between the Renaissance rhetoric of letter-writing and the common law system of "writs." Traces a forensic urge reflected in structural and stylistic preferences of two letter-writing exemplars. Compares the graphic form of instructional aids in both systems to illustrate methods for examining their…

Contributes to scholarship advancing the understanding of human communication by examining a powerful set of imperialist symbols that have a lingering impact on the British national psyche. Investigates the Queen's Diamond Jubilee speech and the performative rhetoric of the Jubilee celebration itself, to illustrate how rhetorical depiction may…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relational nature of humor, (2) pragmatism and transaction, (3) within-channel redundancy versus between-channel redundancy in instructional material and its association with…