Being Made Strange

Bradford Vivian

Description

By elaborating upon pivotal twentieth-century studies in language, representation, and subjectivity, Being Made Strange reorients the study of rhetoric according to the discursive formation of subjectivity. The author develops a theory of how rhetorical practices establish social, political, and ethical relations between self and other, individual and collectivity, good and evil, and past and present. He produces a novel methodology that analyzes not only what an individual says, but also the social, political, and ethical conditions that enable him or her to do so. This book also offers valuable ethical and political insights for the study of subjectivity in philosophy, cultural studies, and critical theory.

Preface

Introduction

Rhetorical Being

Part I: Beyond Representation

1. The Subject and Object of Representation

The Circle of Metaphysics
The End of Rhetoric?
A Crisis of Representation
The Subject and Object of Rhetoric

2. The Ideal of Rhetoric

Logocentrism and Rhetoric
Rhetoric in the Active Voice

Part II: Being Otherwise

3. Rhetoric in the Middle Voice

Rhetoric Made Stranger
The Middle Voice of Persuasion
Discourse, Form, and Ethos

4. Style without Identity

Style and Humanism
Style Redux
Politics, Ethics, and Alterity
Rhetoric and Style Reconfigured

Part III: Rhetoric and the Politics of Self and Other

5. Jefferson's Other

Memory's Desires
Memory's Memory

6. The Rest Is Silence

Silence as Representation
Silence as an Origin
Silence as a Rhetorical Condition

Conclusion: Rhetoric in a Nonmoral Sense

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Ethique et morale
• Semantics
• Stylistics
• Communication studies
• Discourse analysis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791485392
• Langue: English

Extrait

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Being Made Strange

SUNY series in Communication Studies Dudley D. Cahn, editor

Being Made Strange Rhetoric beyond Representation

Bradford Vivian

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2004 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Kelli Williams Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Vivian, Bradford. Being made strange : rhetoric beyond representation / Bradford Vivian. p. cm. — (SUNY series in communication studies) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7914-6037-1 (alk. paper) 1. Rhetoric—Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series.

P301.V58 2004 808'.001—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003067295

for my parents

A speech ought to be a man:—the heart and soul of the speaker made manifest. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Politics”

What matter who’s speaking, someone said what matter who’s speaking. —Samuel Beckett,Texts for Nothing

Preface

Contents

Introduction Rhetorical Being

Part I: Beyond Representation

Chapter 1 The Subject and Object of Representation The Circle of Metaphysics The End of Rhetoric? A Crisis of Representation The Subject and Object of Rhetoric

Chapter 2 The Ideal of Rhetoric Logocentrism and Rhetoric Rhetoric in the Active Voice

Chapter 3

Part II: Being Otherwise

Rhetoric in the Middle Voice Rhetoric Made Stranger The Middle Voice of Persuasion Discourse, Form, and Ethos

Chapter 4 Style without Identity Style and Humanism StyleRedux Politics, Ethics, and Alterity Rhetoric and Style Reconfigured

ix

1 9

21 24 36 37 51

55 61 72

81 82 88 94

111 111 115 121 125

viii

Contents

Part III: Rhetoric and the Politics of Self and Other

Chapter 5 Jefferson’s Other Memory’s Desires Memory’s Memory

Chapter 6

The Rest Is Silence Silence as Representation Silence as an Origin Silence as a Rhetorical Condition

Conclusion Rhetoric in a Nonmoral Sense

Notes

Bibliography

Index

133 136 152

157 160 164 170

181

193

203

223

Contents

Preface

ix

The title of this book is meant to convey a double meaning. On the one hand, the wordbeingmay be taken as a noun. The nature of somethingfamiliar has been altered. According to the subject matter of this book, that thing is a kind of being:humanbeing. Presently, we understand who we are in profoundly different ways than our culture once did. Nevertheless, we use a traditional and seemingly stable category (being) in order to do so. On the other hand, “be- ing” may also be taken as a gerund, in which case what we normally consider a thing would in fact be an action, an occurrence. Our understanding of ourselves as kinds of beings is unsettled, subject to alteration, and we know it. Our ideas about the state of our being are informed by its gradual transfor- mation, by its becoming other than what it once was. We do not merely recognize an objective difference between how individuals once defined human being and how we define it now; rather, the most influential conceptions of human being in the present era are characterized by a reticence at the prospect of naming its truth, of regarding it as a stable entity. Such reticence characterizes the current social context as well as philo- sophical reflection. Technological or biomedical affiliations between humans and machines, the rapid reorganization of time and space achieved by mod- ern information networks, and the questioning of Enlightenment ideologies centered on a universal political subject have prompted us to wonder if we truly can claim any essential human form or nature. Consequently, one is hard-pressed to name human being aseithera nounora gerund, as objective presence or pure process, as an unchanging state of matter or as the embodi- ment of changing states of affairs. At best, ours is an epoch in which one must approach the category of human being with an awareness of this double meaning: asbothpresenceandprocess, as something we comprehend only in its transfiguration. This book investigates the ways in which such double meaning shapes what can be said about human being today. Whatcan be said, however, cannot be separated fromhowit is said. How, then, has the supposed truth of human being traditionally been said? Through- out the Western tradition, the alleged essence of human being has been