Research Note
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>> Critical Rhetoric Biblio List (not exhaustive) Download PDF file

1. Zompetti, Joseph P. (1997). Toward a Gramscian critical rhetoric. Western Journal of Communication. 61 (1, Winter), 66-86. Argues that a more critical application of Gramsci to the communication discipline can foster the formation of a critical telos. Illustrates that Gramsci's framework of telos can extend critical rhetoric into the realm of self reflexivity and praxis, creating new perspectives through which to conceptualize communication.

2. Kuypers, Jim A. (1996). Doxa and a critical rhetoric: Accounting for the rhetorical agent through prudence. Communication Quarterly. 44 (4, Fall), 452-462. Argues critical rhetoric professes to move away from agent-centered understandings, but this ironically recasts agency in the role of the critic. Suggests a revised conception of doxa contrasted against the notion of episteme which is then used to introduce a notion of prudence (practical wisdom).

3. Murphy, John M. (1995). Critical Rhetoric as political discourse. Argumentation and Advocacy. 32 (1, Summer), 1-15. Investigates the argumentation of critical rhetoric as a device directed at creating a new world with a need for a new critical orientation. Argues that Bakhtin's idea of novelization offers a more useful approach to public discourse.

4. Gunn, Joshua, and Beard, David E. (2000). On the apocalyptic sublime. Southern Communication Journal. 65 (4, Summer), 269-286. In this essay we argue that an eschatological discourse we term the "apocalyptic sublime" has emerged as the postmodern alternative to traditional apocalyptic rhetoric. Drawing on the work of Frank Kermode and Jean Baudrillard, the essay isolates two key features of the apocalyptic sublime as (a) a reliance on non-linear temporality and (b) a kind of destabilized subjectivity characteristic of that described in the sublime theories of Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant. The apocalyptic sublime is then used to explain the rhetorical dimensions of the project for a Critical Rhetoric begun by Raymie McKerrow in the late 1980s.

5. Flores, Lisa A., and Moon, Dreama G. (2002). Rethinking race, revealing dilemmas: Imagining a new racial subject in Race Traitor. Western Journal of Communication. 66 (2, Spring), 181-207. Questions of race, racism, and essentialism continue to garner academic and public attention, often provoking debates about how to rethink and/or eliminate race and produce new identities separate from race and racial categories. In this essay, we explore one racial discourse, a contemporary project titled Race Traitor, that seeks to destroy whiteness and replace it with race treason. Drawing on the insights of critical rhetoric, we explore this discourse and argue that one productive approach to race entails consideration of the racial paradox, or the tension between imagining identities beyond race while still recognizing the material reality of race as a fundamental organizing construct. We maintain that strategies of mobility and political solidarity can assist us in navigating the racial paradox.

6. Hasian, Marouf, and Parry-Giles, Trevor. (1997). "A Stranger to its laws": Freedom, civil rights, and the legal ambiguity of Romer v. Evans. Argumentation and Advocacy. 34 (1, Summer), 27-42. Examines the Supreme Court's 1996 decision in Romer v. Evans, which is traditionally viewed as extending civil rights to gay and lesbians. Argues that Romer v. Evans can be used as a case study to show the role of law in lived experience and communal life. Analyzes the case through the lens of "critical rhetoric."

7. Erickson, Keith V. (2000). Presidential rhetoric's visual turn: Performance fragments and the politics of illusionism. Communication Monographs. 67 (2, June), 138-157. This essay explores the aesthetic and rhetorical implications of prudent and imprudent presidential performance fragments embodied in photo-opportunities, thereby addressing presidential rhetoric's "visual turn." Assembled as critical rhetoric text, this essay posits that presidential performance fragments privilege the dominant ideology and its power relationships. In addition, this project argues that prudent presidential performances signal a chief executive's consubstantiality with the mythic presidency, centralized authority, and active political leadership. Imprudent photo-opportunity performances, by contrast, impact negatively a president's image, agenda, credibility, and authority. The essay concludes with a discussion of how political images symbolically affect the citizenry and democratic processes, and advances foundational issues for the critic.

8. Rosteck, Thomas. (1998). Form and cultural context in rhetorical criticism: Re-reading Wrage. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 84 (4, November), 471-490. Rereads Ernest Wrage's landmark essay "Public Address: A Study in Social and Intellectual History" in light of two problematics: the tension between textual criticism and critical rhetoric and the connections between rhetorical analysis and contemporary cultural studies. Argues that such a rereading can expand Wrage's project as well as provide the opportunity to rethink our current critical positions.

9. Sloop, John M. (1992). "The parent I never had": The contemporary construction of alternatives to incarceration. Communication Studies. 43 (1, Spring), 1-13. An analysis of arguments and public discussion reveals how "alternative punishments" to incarceration are constructed. Proposes the utility of incorporating poststructuralist themes, notably "critical rhetoric," into communication studies.

10. Berkowitz, Sandra J. (1997). Empathy and the "other": Challenging U.S. Jewish ideology. Communication Studies. 48 (1, Spring), 1-18. Examines U.S. Jewish discourse in order to assess the ways that ideology structures our social practices. Enacts a critical rhetorical stance. Considers challenges to ideology and argues that both self reflexivity and empathy with the "other" are required. Suggests that an approach that focuses on both identity and empathy better meets the goals of the critical rhetoric and vernacular discourse projects.

12. Ono , Kent A., and Sloop, John M. (1992). Commitment to "telos"- A sustained critical rhetoric. Communication Monographs. 59 (1, March), 48-60. Describes a critical endeavor governed by telos and discusses the strengths and implications of adopting such a position.

13. Blair, Carol, Brown, Julie R., and Baxter, Leslie A. (1994). Disciplining the feminine. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 80 (4, November), 383-409. Looks at a 1992 report on "Active Prolific Female Scholars in Communication" as an example of academic writing that avoids the traditions of masculinist ideology and unitary authorial voice by establihing an alternative which is multivocal and fragmented.

14. Hasian Jr., Marouf, and Delgado, Fernando. (1998). The trials and tribulations of racialized critical rhetorical theory: Understanding the rhetorical ambiguities of Proposition 187. Communication Theory. 8 (3, August), 245-270. Examines the role of race in rhetorical theorizing by linking critical race theory, vernacular criticism, and critical rhetoric. Considers the ways that race was used in the case of Proposition 187. Argues that rhetoricians should consider the concept of race as it relates to communicative practices, and that race is part of legal, political, historical, and cultural discourses. Develops a model for racialized critical rhetorical theorizing.

15. Griffin , Cindy L. (1994). Rhetoricizing alienation: Mary Wollstonecraft and the rhetorical construction of women's oppression. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 80 (3, August), 293-312. Examines the rhetoric of Mary Wollstonecraft, arguing that her analysis and description of the Marxist concept of alienation offers a "rhetoricized" theory about the material experience of women.

16. Greene, Ronald Walter. (1998). Another materialist rhetoric. Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 15 (1, March), 21-40. Argues for a new materialist rhetoric that provides for judgment as well as the ability to police the population. Uses the Gulf War as a case study for exploring contemporary theoretical developments such as critical rhetoric and fragmentation. Argues that rather than pursue a logic of representation, rhetorical studies should concentrate on a logic of articulation that will better account for the distribution of power among people.

17, Sloop, John M. Disciplining the Transgendered: Brandon Teena, Public Representation, and Normativity.
Western Journal of Communication ; Spring2000, Vol. 64 Issue 2, p165, 25p
Discusses how much sex and gender diversity exists in society in relation to the story of Brandon Teena. Discussion on performativity, gender diversity and critical rhetoric ; Description of Brandon's physical and sexual behavior; Causes of aberration.

18. Ono, Kent A. Sloop, John M. Critical Rhetorics of Controversy.
Western Journal of Communication ; Fall99, Vol. 63 Issue 4, p526, 13p
We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the many issues raised in Kendall Phillips's (1999a) essay "A Rhetoric of Controversy' and Thomas Goodnight's (1999) essay/response Mssrs. Dinkins, Rangel and Savage in Colloquy on the African Burial Ground: A Companion Reading." Our interest in "controversy" and "the political," among other issues they raise, leads us to respond to their arguments, to draw some connections to our own work where relevant, and, hopefully, to expand the terms of the conversation between Phillips and Goodnight in order to encourage other scholars interested in these subjects to participate in the discussion.

19, Sullivan, Dale L. Displaying disciplinarity.
Written Communication ; Apr96, Vol. 13 Issue 2, p221, 32p, 3 charts, 3 graphs
Analyzes disciplinarity in publishing as a kid of orthodoxy. Allegiance to a plurality of elements; Assumptions and methodologies; Tradition and novelty; Estimates of species duration; Vocabulary of critical rhetoric .

20. Cloud, Dana L. The materiality of discourse as oxymoron: A challenge to critical rhetoric.
Western Journal of Communication ; Summer94, Vol. 58 Issue 3, p141, 23p
Discusses the shift toward the materiality of discourse in rhetorical studies. Theories of M.C. McGee and R.E. McKerrow; Proposition that discourse is influential in social and material reality; Idealism and relativism of the materiality of discourse idea in postmodernist and post-Marxist rhetorical studies

21. Leffler, M. THINGS MADE BY WORDS: REFLECTIONS ON TEXTUAL CRITICISM.
Quarterly Journal of Speech ; May92, Vol. 78 Issue 2, p223, 9p
Presents an essay as an effort to influence the continuing debate about textual criticism and critical rhetoric and in part an exercise in self-criticism. Gaonkar's argument; Critical rhetoric and textual criticism; Distinctions; Descriptions of each; Details.

22. Hariman, R. Critical rhetoric and postmodern theory.
Quarterly Journal of Speech ; Feb91, Vol. 77 Issue 1, p67, 4p
Presents a criticism of Professor McKerrow's essay, ` Critical Rhetoric ,' which illustrates how much the library for rhetorical studies has changed in the last decade. A careful and timely contribution; Criticism of a tendency in McKerrow's approach; Does not achieve the change he recommends; Overlooks his own modernist assumptions; Liberal stance; Problem with construction of speaker and audience within discourse; Turn to `doxa'; Rhetoric's ascension into high status.

23. Charland, M. Finding a horizon and telos: The challenge to critical rhetoric.
Quarterly Journal of Speech ; Feb91, Vol. 77 Issue 1, p71, 4p
Presents a criticism of Professor McKerrow's essay on Critical Rhetoric , in which McKerrow seeks to chart a new path for rhetorical studies. Attempting to occupy for ` critical ' work a place it has not yet had; Project is laudable; Demands that critique precede the invention of new rhetorics ; Infinite regress of negative critique; Commitment to `praxis'; More.

24. Hasian Jr., Marouf LEGAL ARGUMENTATION IN THE GODWIN-MALTHUS DEBATES.
Argumentation & Advocacy ; Spring2001, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p184, 14p
Focuses on the legal argumentation in the Malthus-Godwin `Poor Law' debates. Relationship between law, materiality and critical rhetoric , keying on possible alterations in the way people think about ideographs; Genealogy of the term `Necessity,' including some of its political usages in the 17th and 18th centuries; Assessment of the potentialities of adopting critical legal perspectives.

25. Clark, Norman The critical servant: An Isocratean contribution to...
Quarterly Journal of Speech ; May96, Vol. 82 Issue 2, p111, 14p
States that the critical rhetoric project does not have a strong understanding of the relationship between critical rhetor and the audience. Suggestions on the offer of Isocrates writings; What combination of critique and service strongly recommends to rhetors; Method used by critical servants to arrive at a contingent good submitted for acceptance of community; Effect of reading, interpretations and remarking of community history by critic.

26. Glenn, C. B. (2002). Critical Rhetoric and Pedagogy: (Re)Considering Student-Centered Dialogue. Radical Pedagogy, 4, Winter (np). Accessible: www.radicalpedagogy.com

27. Owen, S. A. & Ehrenhaus, P. (1990). Animating a Critical Rhetoric: On the feeding habits of American empire. Western Journal of Communication, 57, 169-77.

McKerrow works
(2001). Critical Rhetoric. In T. Sloane (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Rhetoric . (pp. 619-622). NY: Oxford University Press.
(2000). Opening the Future: Postmodern Rhetoric in a Multi-Cultural World. In A.
Gonzalez and D. V. Tanno (Eds.), Rhetoric in Intercultural Contexts (pp. 41-46). Newbury Park , CA : Sage.
(1999). Space and Time in a Postmodern Polity. Western Journal of Communication , 63, 271-90.
(1998). Rhetoric and the Construction of a Deliberative Community. Southern Communication Journal, 63, 350-356.
(1998). Corporeality and Cultural Rhetoric: A Site for Rhetoric's Future. Southern Communication Journal, 63, 315-328.
(1993). Overcoming Fatalism: Rhetoric/Argument in Postmodernity. In R. McKerrow (Ed.), Argument and the Postmodern Challenge (pp. 119-121). Annandale , VA : SCA/AFA.
(1991). Critical Rhetoric and Propaganda Studies. In J. Anderson (Ed.), Communication Yearbook, 14 (pp. 249-55). Newbury Park , CA : Sage.
(1991). Critical Rhetoric in a Postmodern World. Quarterly Journal of Speech , 77, 75-78.
(1989). Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis. Communication Monographs , 56 , 91-111. Lead Essay. Reprinted in Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: A Reader , J. L. Lucaites, C. M. Condit, S. Caudill, Eds. (New York: Guilford Press, 1999); Chinese translation published in Western Rhetoric: Critical Paradigms and Methods (China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1999); Readings in Rhetorical Criticism , C. Burgchardt, Ed. (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 1995).