Politics and Rhetoric: A Critical Introduction

199 Pages·2013·0.86 MB·English

by  James Martin

Politics and Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of speech and persuasion, the study of argument and, in Classical
times, an essential component in the education of the citizen. For rhetoricians,
politics is a skill to be performed and not merely observed. Yet in modern democ-
racies we often suspect political speech of malign intent and remain uncertain
how properly to interpret and evaluate it. Public arguments are easily dismissed
as ‘mere rhetoric’ rather than engaged critically, with citizens encouraged to be
passive consumers of a media spectacle rather than active participants in a politi-
cal dialogue.
This volume provides a clear and instructive introduction to the skills of the
rhetorical arts. It surveys critically the place of rhetoric in contemporary public
life and assesses its virtues as a tool of political theory. Questions about power
and identity in the practices of speech and communication remain central to the
rhetorical tradition: how are we persuaded and can we trust that we are not being
manipulated? Only a grasp of the techniques of rhetoric and an understanding of
how they orient us towards common situations, argues the author, can guide us in
answering these perennial questions.
Politics and Rhetoric draws together in a comprehensive and highly accessible
way relevant ideas from discourse analysis, classical rhetoric updated to a modern
setting, relevant issues in contemporary political theory, and numerous carefully
chosen examples from current politics. It will be essential reading for all students
of Politics and Political Communications.
James Martin is Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study
of Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Politics and Rhetoric
A critical introduction
James Martin
First published 2014
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 James Martin
The right of James Martin to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN: 978-0-415-70667-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-70671-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88689-3 (ebk)
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Contents
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements x
1 The power of persuasion 1
What is rhetoric? 2
Politics, power and the political 3
Situating rhetoric in time and space 7
Chapter outline 12
Summary 14
2 The truth of rhetoric 15
The sophists and the origins of rhetoric 16
Plato’s critique of rhetoric 18
Aristotle and the republican tradition 21
Hobbes, Rousseau and modern sovereignty 26
Summary 31
3 The rhetorical citizen 33
Citizenship, ancient and modern 34
The politics of representation 38
Contemporary political philosophy and rhetoric 43
Summary 50
4 Techniques I: discovery and arrangement 51
The occasions of speech 52
The issue 55
The discovery of the argument 57
Arrangement 65
Summary 70
viii Contents
5 Techniques II: style and delivery 71
Style 72
Figures of speech 75
Delivery 83
Summary 87
6 Rhetorical political analysis 88
Political science, ideas and interpretation 89
Rhetorical situations and political strategies 94
Structure, agency and rhetorical intervention 97
Analysing rhetoric: a method and an example 99
Summary 106
7 Democracy, rhetoric and the emotions 107
Deliberative democracy 108
The affective unconscious: neuroscience and psychoanalysis 113
Affective strategies and emotional orientation 120
A rhetorical democracy? 124
Summary 125
8 Media rhetoric: speaking for the public 127
Mediating the public domain 128
Public sphere, marketing or showbusiness? 131
Media rhetoric: the example of TV news 137
Counterpublic rhetoric 143
Summary 146
9 Embodied speech: rhetoric and the politics of gender 148
Situating gender 149
Feminism and rhetoric 154
Gender and the nation 160
Summary 166
Afterword 167
Bibliography 170
Index 184
Tables
4.1 The five canons of rhetoric 52
4.2 The genres of speech 53
4.3 Status theory 57
4.4 The three types of appeal 58
4.5 The parts of speech 66