One prominent model of rhetorical criticism in American Studies comes from Alan Trachtenberg, who in The Incorporation of America (1982) concentrated on "the figurative language by which people represent their perceptions of themselves and their worlds." From Gilded Age novels, after-dinner speeches, photographs placed in postcards, architecture and advertisements for the world's fairs, and the display and design of machines in factories, he drew out "speech, tropes, images, metaphors." He argued that cultural products are "materials of prime historical interest, for they are vehicles of self-knowledge, of the concepts upon which people act. They are also, especially in the public domain, forces in their own right, often coloring perceptions in a certain way even against all evidence. At the same time, figurative representations occupy the same social world as other forces, material and political." In other words, repeatedly invoked rhetoric that takes on socially shared meanings reveals worldviews, biases, and objectives often outside the awareness of its users. The analyst discerns the meanings of representations by pointing out contexts that can be immediate (such as the format and audience of the written or spoken work) and broad (such as anti-immigrant prejudices or imperialist longings to be on a par with Europe).
Generally, rhetorical criticism contains five characteristics. These characteristics can sometimes be found on their own in rhetorical studies or in some combination with each other. First, criticism defines. The first job of a rhetorical critic is to determine when and if rhetoric has taken place. By engaging in what objective is rhetorical in nature those critics are also defining and expanding what the point of criticism is. Second, criticism classifies. Since the time of Aristotle, scholars put specific forms of rhetoric into different categories (e.g., different genres) that contain different components and strategies. Third, criticism analyzes. One of the primary jobs of a rhetorical critic is to describe how a specific object of criticism works. There are various ways to engage in this description, but the common thread of these means is to provide an understanding of how an object of criticism functions in a given situation. Fourth, criticism interprets. Interpretation is often getting at why something works, not merely describing its inner workings, thus giving the object of criticism deeper meaning. Finally, criticism evaluates. An important part of criticism is to make a judgment about a particular piece of criticism or a specific aspect of it. Is that objective effective? To what extent is it effective? What aspects might be more prominent than others?
A second aspect of rhetorical criticism that has evolved since the beginnings of American studies as an academic field in the early twentieth century is the objective of critical practice. As the study of rhetoric became a more prominent subject within American universities, rhetorical scholars focused primarily on the study of great speakers (e.g., Abraham Lincoln) and great speeches (e.g., the Gettysburg Address) as the subjects of their analysis. However, after World War II, many rhetorical scholars advocated for greater plurality into what rhetorical critics should examine. For example, Edwin Black's book Rhetorical Criticism: A Study in Method (1965; rpt. 1978) helped expand the corpus of materials to analyze by noting uses of rhetorical power, aside from speeches by elites in protest songs, folklore, monuments, movies, television shows, social movements, pamphlets, and other objects.
Henry Nash Smith's foundational "symbol-myth" approach in American studies epitomized by Virgin Land (1950), incorporated rhetorical criticism in the identification of expansionist arguments in dime novels and popular prints about the frontier published in the late nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century, scholars frequently locate emerging cultural productions for analysis, including web pages, graffiti, tattoos, and any object that might contain some kind of rhetorical power or is used "rhetorically." In addition, traditional historic texts have been reexamined for what Trachtenberg called "tropes, images, and metaphors," such as Puritan sermons (interpreted as "American jeremiads"), political slogans and campaigns (with terms such as the "American Dream" and "Self-Made Man" analyzed for exceptionalist and populist worldviews), and journalism (approached as "social and intellectual constructions"). Themes are frequently identified as patterns of practice among social communities associated with American culture in historical and geographic context, such as future orientation, optimism, exceptionalism, individualism, and so on.
The third area that has been up for much debate within rhetorical criticism, particularly in the United States, has been the specific steps of critical practice. In other words, rhetorical critics debate the proper aspects of method. In Neo-Aristotelianism, for example, rhetorical critics translate classical rhetorical theory into reading texts. They examine a speech by identifying how the rhetor used the canons of rhetoric (invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery) and modes of proof (ethos, pathos, and logos). The goal of this method is to account for and discover the rhetorical devices and effects of the speech. This approach has been a departure point for a variety of methods including psychoanalytical, semiotic, folkloristic, and feminist close readings and deconstructions or interpretations of texts.
The final area of debate and study within rhetorical criticism engages the functions and purposes of rhetorical criticism. One prominent purpose of many rhetorical studies is to shape or improve public taste. Criticism can be used to educate its audience and become better consumers of the rhetoric that surrounds them on a daily basis. A second function of rhetorical criticism is theoretical. Analyzing various rhetorical acts (such as speeches, films, campaigns, monuments, videogames, and websites) can provide insight into understanding how they work, exude power, create beauty, and contribute to historical development of various items. Rhetorical criticism can assist in creating "scientific" theories of persuasion, while at the same time elucidating the beauty and value of a specific object (e.g., Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech or Ralph Waldo Emerson's "American Scholar" essay).
Another applied function of rhetorical criticism is its use in exposing oppressive forces that create injustice in the world. This form of rhetorical practice is often referred to as critical rhetoric. Critical rhetoricians argue their criticism is political in nature, which allows them to intervene in societal affairs by describing rhetorical practices that dominate various groups. Making people aware of these practices gives them the opportunity to advance societal and political reform.
Rhetorical criticism often is incorporated into other methodologies used in American studies such as ethnography and performance analysis, by applying questions of discourse�that is, images, forms, themes, and actions engaged to persuade others�in symbolic communication. Although rhetorical criticism did not emerge from American studies, it has been a fundamental component of the field's tool kit and has been shaped into a distinctive thematic and expressive approach to the close reading of texts, acts, and objects for symbols and metaphors, communicative structures and forms, and images and tropes. Often a concern of this criticism is the cultural strategies available to individuals to express identity in local, ethnic, gendered, and organizational ways in addition to national or transnational ties.
American Studies: Approaches and Concepts
Critical Approaches to Literature
Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th Century
Encyclopedia of American Studies, ed. Simon J. Bronner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), s.v. "Rhetorical Criticism" (by Jason A. Edwards), http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/view?aid=806 (accessed August 23, 2018).
TOP
Save/Email Citation
