Sunday, November 2, 2008

Week 10: Consider This . . .

Consider FORM and GENRE

Vis-à-vis our recent class discussions and the above class notes, this week’s blog asks that you think critically about form and genre as a rhetorical ‘means.’* Specifically, I would like you to choose any text in any form that has moved you and consider its form or genre from a rhetorical perspective. What does the form/genre lend to its impact or appeal? How does genre affect its rhetorical efficacy, its meaning? Why is the form an appropriate expression of its meaning?

Please note that in the selection of your example, ‘text’ may be considered broadly to include any form that makes a rhetorical statement, i.e. movies, music, poetry, photography, painting, sculpture, speeches, ads, a work of fiction, drama, a skit, a nonfiction essay . . . an animated series or short?—

In brief, please select a favorite or memorable movie, song, poem, book, painting, etc. and examine its form or genre in relation to its rhetorical appeal.

For example, in Invisible Man^ Ellison uses surrealism, flashback, and symbolism—available to him through the genre of fiction—to present and lend strength to his arguments. It allows him to 'play' with his argument, present it through an artistic medium and make a powerful, pathetic appeal. His argument would look very different if it were a speech or an academic argument and would probably favor a more explicitly logical approach. In other words, genre itself makes an argument and works in tandem with content to achieve a particular rhetorical objective.

So think about a time when you have been, in George Campbell’s language, enlightened, pleased, moved, or influenced by a text . . . and then consider what form or genre had to do with your reaction.


NOTES:

*This is, by any measure, a challenging assignment. I am willing to allow additional time, beyond our usual Tuesday-by-midnight deadline, for its completion; this will also give us the opportunity to discuss it in class on Tuesday, should you so desire.

^I have—with apologies—been delinquent in posting our class notes from our discussion of Invisible Man, so please refer to your notes from class to remind you of our collective observations and the arguments we teased out of the novel.

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