RHETOR 20 Study Guide - Comprehensive Midterm Guide: Bourdeaux, Rhetorical Modes, Rationality
Document Summary
Course: emphasis on visual components over the textual, done in a verbal context. Training on intangible critical thinking and communicative skills. Normal situation (stanley fish): not need interpretation, the text itself should deliver its meaning. Anti-definition view (mascuch): definitions narrow one"s view of a word/ phrase by offering the essential aspect. Eco explores mediation (in situations of copresence, it seems irrelevant to think about this) Versus textual/ written material, illocutionary force cannot be used. Reading: normal circumstances and other special cases, stanley fish. Essentialist view: wants literal meaning to be transcendent (sticks for all time - transcultural, transhistorical) People want fixed meaning for many reasons: trustworthy, allows for planning. Grounded in the notion that text is the basis of meaning, accessible by everyone. No literal meanings at all - free play, anything goes . Like literal meanings but emphasize that meanings move in space and time and changes accordingly.
