According to Foss, rhetoric is "the human use of symbols to communicate" (1). She travels deeper into her definition, explaining that "humans construct the world in which they live through their symbolic choices" (Foss 2). What she is trying to define is the actuality that we, as humans, choose how we define the truth by how we percieve the facts surrounding the truth. For example, If I sent a card to someone and it just happened to be Valentine's day it might be seen by the card recipient as a proclamation of love when I just wanted them to know that I really liked the shirt that they were wearing on Tuesday. This example might be a large exaggeration, but the point is clear; not every situation is see by every person the same way. Another example could be seen in the way a person dresses. If a woman shows up in a nice business suit for a job interview, she is likely to be seen as a successful canidate for the position. If another person shows up to interview for the same position wearing sweats and a baseball cap, that person will be seen as a less qualified prospect whether they are or not. This is because of the symbolism that we have attached to certain styles of dress. In many cases like this one, the symbols that we have attached to things mean more than the the thing that we claim is important.
Just as symbols define how we view our lives, "changing our symbols changes our worlds" (Foss 2). This is how new slang changes perfectly good words into unrecognizable definitions for something entirely different. A fantastic example of this is the word gay. It used to be another word for happy. Now our culture has redefined it to mean homosexual. Most homosexuals I know are not necessarily happy so the word has completely lost its original meaning. No wonder people from other countries trying to learn "American" English have such a hard time understanding what we say when they come to visit the U.S. We are speaking an entirely different language.
Andrea Lunsford: "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication." http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rhetoricdefinitions.htm
I. A. Richards: Rhetoric is the study of misunderstandings and their remedies. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rhetoricdefinitions.htm
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1 comment:
Great work. The examples are strong.
From my reading, I get the feeling you would support the notion that rhetoric creates reality.
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