Navigating Genres by: Kerry Dirk
Can
art function rhetorically?
-It can, however art can also be
demonstrated without rhetorical value.
-Ex. Animal Farm by: George Orwell
·
Fiction-
an art form
·
Communism-
the exigence
·
Identification
of the exigence qualifies Animal Farm as a rhetorical construct.
Composition
-Before we looked into the
rhetorical situation, we were concerned with formatting: where items are
effectively located to convey to your audience what they should expect upon
viewing your material.
Recurring
Rhetorical Situations
-Dirk included a quote from Bitzer
in Navigating Genres that explained
how rhetorical situations reoccur once an initial exigence and audience,
along with respective constraints is addressed. Dirk used the example of
presidential speeches, such as the State of the Union Address to demonstrate
this idea.
Handout:
Genre in Rhetorical and Sociological
Traditions
-Because of the rhetorical situation, everyone
has the ability to participate in public. There are no restrictions
regarding who you are. There are plenty of outlets available to address an
exigence and receive a response. Everyone has the ability to read, write and
publish. Anyone can affect positive change.
-“Typified” Explained:
·
Ex.
Email- has a greeting/salutation, a body of text, signature, etc.
·
Genres
with typical formats
-Genres create expectations in readers
·
Genre
gives us a tool for creating messages based on the expectations people have
about the selected genre.
·
Ex.
To write your first memo you would read over memos that others have already
created in your community or find examples on the Internet to see what memos
look like and what they consist of. You are looking to define the memo genre.
Discussion
of Literary and Rhetorical Genres based off Navigating
Genres:
Literary Genres
-Ex:
Fiction, Non Fiction; subgenres: Romance,
Science Fiction, etc.
-Primarily used for entertainment
-Although, books are used for entertainment but can also be persuasive
-Length of text is taken into consideration more so than rhetorical genres, but is not always an indicator of the genre.
· Ex. Poems are short, novels are around/at least 200 pages.
· We are taught not to use first person, to consider tone, and be cautious about the length when composing in the literary genre
-Relationship to the audience: “Writing To”
-Must be an original message, no plagiarism
-“Passive”
-“Personal”
-“Timeless”
-Bitzer says literary texts can be rhetorical but not all literary texts are rhetorical
Rhetorical Genres
-Deals
with persuasion (Bitzer)
-Primarily
a call to action
-Social Action: texts aren’t persuasive they are a response.
·
By
achieving social action, one is addressing an exigence and producing a fitting
message.
-Easier
to break conventions because your focus it to address and exigence and receive
a response which has endless genres to conform to.
-Relationship
to the audience: “Writing For”
-copying
former messages (plagiarizing) is not an issue.
·
Ex.
#likeagirl and “Keep Austin Weird” were reused over and over in different
capacities in order to spread awareness.
-“Active”
-“Social”
-“Timely”
The remainder of the class consisted
primarily of discussion/confusion regarding what is considered rhetorical:
-One student believed everything literary
has some rhetorical material
·
Ex.
Sketch Comedy Show – meant to entertain but addresses controversial matters
-There are more materials than we are
aware of that contain rhetorical function
·
Ex.
“Bad Romance”- Lady Gaga, the music video confused viewers with its avant garde
nature but was intended to bring attention to human trafficking. On the surface
it is merely artistic and entertaining.
·
Ex.
“Bible” and “The Declaration of Independence” – both considered rhetorical
materials but today are treated like art, placed in museums, bible verses
framed and hung in households, etc.
-Dickens addressed the struggles of the
Industrial Revolution, which we cannot relate to, therefore his works function
less rhetorically overtime despite coinciding themes with today’s issues.
-Can Harry Potter be rhetorical?
·
It
brought up issues of faith (Christianity) and the definition of family; a
coming of age story, censorship
·
How
explicit is the exigence? The class felt that the characters clearly went
through these difficulties throughout the books.
·
If
Harry Potter was brought into current conversation, then it can be considered
rhetorical.
- Switched
At Birth vaguely
addressed rape in recent episodes. An article was published explaining the
show’s representation of rape. Both the show and the article are considered
rhetorical.
- The
message can fail and still be considered rhetorical
Dirk: genre used to be a form that you
would fill out (p.252)
- Cited Bitzer’s requirement for a first
response
-Static Genres aren’t entertaining
-Rhetorical Genres are social because
they call for action
-Literary Genres are personal because
they convey desire; make others feel
-Ex. Slam Poetry
(Anger) – but usually address an exigence so it is considered rhetorical as
well.
-Intention
does not change because the message failed
-Can
an exigence accidentally be addressed?
- Ex. Hitting foot on the door and yelling
an expletive, having class react to it. Initially thought to be rhetorical. (?)
-Vats
thought rhetorical situation is much more ambiguous than Bitzer lead on
-It
is difficult to isolate a single rhetorical situation
“Genres
help us make decisions when writing.”-Dirk p. 259
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