Using rhetorical analysis in the form of an autoethnographically informed biocritique, this study applies and expands the concept of rhetorical plasticity to examine the popular museum exhibit "Bodies: The Exhibition," which is arguably the most controversial of a series of contemporary museum exhibits that feature deceased human bodies…

This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…

The intent of this article is to explore how No Child Left Behind (NCLB) emerges from a discursive frame that is also used in relation to neoliberal corporate conquests and, significantly, America's war on terror. The article first demonstrates through reference to online resistance discourses and NCLB, how NCLB is a product of and reproduces the…

Explores the territory of whiteness in order to map the discursive space it occupies, as the first step in the process of exposing whiteness as a rhetorical construction. Discusses some of the rhetorical strategies through which whiteness resecures its discursive space and concludes with three aspects of reflexivity that offer directions for…

Suggests that symbolic acts of power (threats and promises) in the context of conflict resolution are within the domain of rhetorical study, and that their consideration refocuses the attention given to invention, strategic choices, and ethical questions. (PD)

The questioning of hegemonic discourses has become an essential element in many feminist, afro-centric, and literary theories of discourse. Scholars in these areas have explicated various indictments of the phallocentric, eurocentric, and essentialist linguistic strategies defined and perpetuated by dominant population groups, and some have begun…

Attempts by governmental powers to suspend the right to Habeas Corpus have occurred from time to time throughout English and American history. This study discusses one such successful attempt, engineered by William Pitt the Younger, then prime minister, in 1794. Pitt's success in gaining suspension of this writ and passage of the Habeas Corpus…

Defines and contrasts the rhetorical status (individual's and groups' potential influence in society through symbols) of some Blacks and Whites under slavery, and analyzes the more powerful forms of persuasion employed by many Blacks during and after Reconstruction. (SR)

Followers attribute authority to charismatic leaders through their faith and belief in them and in their mission. Charismatic authority in organizations involves an interaction of leader, followers, and moral order; in the eyes of the followers, the leader personifies that order. Authority must come from below because the ultimate decision to…

Argues that the legitimacy crisis in Iran in 1978-79 arose from the contrasting views of authority espoused by the Shah and the Ayatollah over 25 years and describes how their rhetoric expresses the two impulses of the progressive and the traditionalist orientation of authority. Employs a critical perspective to analyze various rhetorical…

Analyzes a case where a group of local steelworkers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, in conjunction with a small group of Protestant ministers, sought to gain public support for the redress of grievances, and how their subordination by the United Steel Workers' union and the Lutheran Church influenced their rhetorical activities. (SR)

The central focus in this article is that how language is used can constitute the basis for power relations. In the first place, power functions through linguistic expressions in relationships of superiority and subordination (commands, reprimands etc.). Secondly, language acts can appear as representations of discourse, i.e. linguistic and…