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Rhetorical Animals

Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion

Edited by Kristian Bjørkdahl and Alex C. Parrish - Contributions by Kristian Bjørkdahl; Alex C. Parrish; Marilyn M. Cooper; T. Jake Dionne; Ellen W. Gorsevski; Iklim Goksel; Dustin A. Greenwalt; David R. Gruber; Andrea Gutiérrez; Susan Hafen; Matthew Lerberg; Kelin Loe; Emily Plec; Jennifer Saltmarsh and Hayley Zertuche

For this edited volume, the editors solicited chapters that investigate the place of nonhuman animals in the purview of rhetorical theory; what it would mean to communicate beyond the human community; how rhetoric reveals our "brute roots." In other words, this book investigates themes that enlighten us about likely or possible implications of the animal turn within rhetorical studies. The present book is unique in its focus on the call for nonanthropocentrism in rhetorical studies. Although there have been many hints in recent years that rhetoric is beginning to consider the implications of the animal turn, as yet no other anthology makes this its explicit starting point and sustained objective. Thus, the various contributions to this book promise to further the ongoing debate about what rhetoric might be after it sheds its long-standing humanistic bias.

Lexington Books

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-5845-7 • Hardback • November 2017 • $136.00 • (£105.00)

978-1-4985-5847-1 • Paperback • February 2020 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-1-4985-5846-4 • eBook • November 2017 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Series: Ecocritical Theory and Practice

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Nature, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Ecocritical Theory

Rhetorical Animals

Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

For this edited volume, the editors solicited chapters that investigate the place of nonhuman animals in the purview of rhetorical theory; what it would mean to communicate beyond the human community; how rhetoric reveals our "brute roots." In other words, this book investigates themes that enlighten us about likely or possible implications of the animal turn within rhetorical studies. The present book is unique in its focus on the call for nonanthropocentrism in rhetorical studies. Although there have been many hints in recent years that rhetoric is beginning to consider the implications of the animal turn, as yet no other anthology makes this its explicit starting point and sustained objective. Thus, the various contributions to this book promise to further the ongoing debate about what rhetoric might be after it sheds its long-standing humanistic bias.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-5845-7 • Hardback • November 2017 • $136.00 • (£105.00)

978-1-4985-5847-1 • Paperback • February 2020 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-1-4985-5846-4 • eBook • November 2017 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Series: Ecocritical Theory and Practice

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Nature, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Ecocritical Theory

Author

Kristian Bjørkdahl is postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo.

Alex C. Parrish is assistant professor of writing, rhetoric, and technical communication at James Madison University.

Table of Contents

Part I: Expanding Boundaries – Internally
Chapter 1: Multiple Rhetorical Animals: Motivation and Fairness in a Paradigm of Rhetoric as Emotive Consciousness
David Gruber
Chapter 2: A Humanimal Rhetorics of Biological Materiality
Hayley Zertuche
Chapter 3: Let’s Listen With Our Feet: Animals, Neurodivergence, Vulnerability, and Haptic Rhetoricity
Kelin Loe
Chapter 4: Human Boundary Seepage and Bacterial Rhetorics
Jennifer Saltmarsh

Part II: Expanding Boundaries – Externally
Chapter 5: The Biotic Turn in Rhetoric: Ethical Internatural Communication as Suasory Peacebuilding
Ellen Gorsevski
Chapter 6: Towards an Ethological Rhetoric
Dustin Greenwalt
Chapter 7: Beyond a Patriarchal Rhetorical Economy: Nonhuman Animals as Agents in Turkic Legends and Political Culture
Iklim Goksel
Chapter 8: Human, Dolphins, and Other People
Alex Parrish

Part III: Further Expansion: Cross-Species and Across Cultures
Chapter 9: Learning to Howl: An Exercise in Internatural Abduction
Emily Plec and Susan Hafen
Chapter 10: Touring the Sixth Persona: Dodos and the Rhetorical Effects of Missed Communication
Jake Dionne
Chapter 11: How Dogs (and Other Nonhuman Animals) Become Interesting)
Marilyn Cooper
Chapter 12: How to Understand a Parrot’s Words and What You Can Learn from Him: Early Indian Writers on Animal Speech
Andrea Gutierrez
Chapter 13: The Rhetoric of Nonanthropocentric Rhetoric
Bjørkdahl, Kristian

Reviews

In the excellent collection Rhetorical Animals, Bjørkdahl and Parrish have collected a range of robust investigations on the persuasive capacities of animals. These chapters expand existing conversations on ethics, rhetorics, and materiality, while pointing to new directions for exploring intra-animal persuasions, human-animal relationships, and the biotic bases for persuasion. Further, the scholars assembled here trouble longstanding assumptions about what rhetoric is, how it functions, and who has access to it, all while being critical and personal in equal measure.
— Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, Oregon State University

Rhetorical Animals

Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion

Rhetorical Animals

Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion

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