Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Rhetoric (5)
- Bibliography (4)
- Books (4)
- HBLL (4)
- Election (3)
-
- Book review (2)
- English (2)
- Humanism (2)
- Mitt Romney (2)
- Mormonism (2)
- Prophets (2)
- 2012 election (1)
- 9/11 (1)
- A-E (1)
- Africa (1)
- Agency (1)
- Alexandria (1)
- Barack Obama (1)
- Bilingual (1)
- Bilingual creativity (1)
- British Guiana (1)
- Bronson Alcott (1)
- Child–adult differences (1)
- Civil religion (1)
- Classroom (1)
- Comparative studies (1)
- Conservatism (1)
- Cross-language similarity (1)
- Cultural differences (1)
- Demagoguery (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 37
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
On The Rhetorical Grotesque: A Mode For Strange Times, Richard Benjamin Crosby
On The Rhetorical Grotesque: A Mode For Strange Times, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
This essay argues that the successful political careers of certain populist leaders rhetorically enact what scholars have long recognized in art, literature, and entertainment as the grotesque. The grotesque provides a theoretically rich means for describing the vulgar and chaotic public behaviors that take strong hold among anti-elite audiences at certain points in history. By closely reading comments from political leaders cast in the grotesque mold, including Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chavez, and Donald Trump, this essay explains not only what the grotesque is, but also when and how it is likely to find traction in a political culture ripe for …
Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political And Philosophic By Ralph Lerner (Review), Richard Benjamin Crosby
Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political And Philosophic By Ralph Lerner (Review), Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Naïve Readings is an enjoyable series of critical examinations of major historical texts written by a political historian who thinks he has discovered rhetorical analysis. On its dust jacket, Ralph Lerner’s latest book purports to offer “a new method of reading . . . a way toward deeper understanding of some of history’s most important—and most concealed—messages.” A tantalizing endorsement—one that befıts Lerner’s distinguished scholarly career. Lerner himself calls the book a “reconsideration” of “our current habits of reading” (2). So, we are led to expect a bold survey of the major thinkers he studies, from Franklin to Tocqueville to …
Liminally White: Jews, Mormons, And Whiteness, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Liminally White: Jews, Mormons, And Whiteness, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Jews and Mormons have pasts as racialized Others. Although they appear dissimilar, both groups have been inscribed historically as non-White. Both groups responded to these inscriptions by attempting to achieve Whiteness, making numerous and radical concessions to U.S. American culture. As a result, both groups became "liminally White". We argue that such liminal status demonstrates the fissures in Whiteness and provides creative new grounds for critiquing Whiteness as a rhetorical construct.
Walcott, Joyce, And Planetary Modernisms, Aaron Eastley
Walcott, Joyce, And Planetary Modernisms, Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
Within the framework of global or planetary modernism studies, chronological before and after sequences are receding in importance as situational similarities come to the fore. 'Modernism' has become 'modernisms'. This shift toward an ethical, eclectic inclusivity is especially salutary when it comes to comparative studies of writers such as Derek Walcott and James Joyce. On the face of things, it seems clear that Walcott was a follower of Joyce: a postcolonial writer inspired by the semi-colonial Irishman, who was himself a follower in/of the British literary tradition. And followers are not as great as leaders. Originals are better than copies. …
Perceived Preceptor: Narrator's Role In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Jason Godfrey
Perceived Preceptor: Narrator's Role In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Jason Godfrey
Faculty Publications
In this article, I posit that Austen uses her self-aware, colloquial narrator to satirize Catherine’s grandiose fantasies and quiz (or mock) the reader who would prefer a story where fantasies are indulged and also to instruct the reader about the importance of discernment both in-text and in larger social discourse.
Diasporic Transnationalism In Zoë Wicomb’S "The One That Got Away" And "October", Aaron Eastley
Diasporic Transnationalism In Zoë Wicomb’S "The One That Got Away" And "October", Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
Whereas the early works of South African/Scottish writer Zoë Wicomb delved into racial tensions caused by apartheid, her more recent works excavate diasporic tensions tied to present-day travel and transnationalism. In her 2009 short story collection The One That Got Away and her 2014 novel October, Wicomb presents a series of narratives in which Cape Town and Glasgow collide. In these narratives Wicomb gravitates toward the experiences of mostly middle-class immigrants and visitors, often in later stages of life, operating in the relatively established multiculturalism of today's South Africa and UK. The irony of present-day transnational mobility as Wicomb …
Spiritual Modalities: Prayer As Rhetoric And Performance, By William Fitzgerald (Review), Richard Benjamin Crosby
Spiritual Modalities: Prayer As Rhetoric And Performance, By William Fitzgerald (Review), Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Spiritual Modalities is arguably the first major work to take up the high theoretical questions of rhetoric and religion since Burke's Rhetoric of Religion published more than half a century ago. While a number of other studies deal with the relationship between religious discourse and other phenomena, such as politics, social movements, or particular rhetors and periods, Spiritual Modalities makes a strong claim to understand the primeval stuff of prayer's varied and complex discourses. As Burke writes: "we are to be concerned not directly with religion, but with the terminology of religion" (vi). So Fitzgerald is not concerned with prayer …
Civil Religion, Nativist Rhetoric, And The Origins Of Washington National Cathedral, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Civil Religion, Nativist Rhetoric, And The Origins Of Washington National Cathedral, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Set atop the highest point in the nation's capital, The Washington National Cathedral is the sixth largest cathedral in the world. It has become a central site for the high holy rituals of American civil religion, hosting presidential funerals, National Day of Prayer services, and the tombs of national luminaries. Drawing on archival research, this essay situates the cathedral within a history of religious competition and national tension. The essay concludes that the cathedral's roots lie largely in the fecund rhetorical soil of nineteenth-century nativism, the cultural prejudice that emerged in reaction to Roman Catholicism's remarkable growth during that period. …
"Terror As Theater": Unraveling Spectacle In Post 9/11 Literatures, Elise Christine Silva
"Terror As Theater": Unraveling Spectacle In Post 9/11 Literatures, Elise Christine Silva
Faculty Publications
For the purposes of this paper, I will discuss two post 9/11 novels—both of which utilize the terror-as-theatre metaphor in order to work through the 9/11 spectacle. Both Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007), and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) explore avenues of communication and meaning making in the face of an event that many critics suggested defied language, description, and expression. Through their thematic use of performance, these texts reject a closed and inert polarized interpretation of 9/11 and invite a pastiche of interpretations and interactions. Through this communicative connection, authors, texts, and readers convene to …
Toward A Practical Civic Piety: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, And The Race For National Priest, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Toward A Practical Civic Piety: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, And The Race For National Priest, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
In 2008, two of the leading presidential candidates emerged from controversial, outsider religious groups—Mormonism and the black church tradition. Dogged by ongoing questions from the media, each candidate produced a high-profıle public address. In this article, I argue that Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” and Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” craft competing visions for American civic piety. Drawing on recent literature in the area of practical piety, I read the speeches as evidence that civic piety may be more than a subordinating, pragmatic agreement between church and state. It may instead be read as a spiritually substantive space of …
The Agentive Play Of Bishop Henry Yates Satterlee, Richard Benjamin Crosby
The Agentive Play Of Bishop Henry Yates Satterlee, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
The epigraph comes from the section of the Pentateuch in which Moses descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments and communicates the will of God to the children of Israel. God has been speaking with Moses for forty days and nights and has conferred on him the authority to serve as revelator and prophet of the children of Israel. In this passage, Moses has become the literal conveyance for God's word, a conduit for the divine Logos. Perhaps the detail that gets the least attention in this familiar story is Moses's veil. The image suggests a deliberate self-effacement. The veil, …
Linguistic Behavior And Religious Activity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, David Bowie
Linguistic Behavior And Religious Activity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, David Bowie
Faculty Publications
Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic differences. We break this down further by investigating whether there are also differences between Mormons who actively participate in the religion and those who do not, and find significant differences with a medium or larger effect size between the groups for multiple variables. We conclude that when investigating the linguistic correlates of religious affiliation in a community, it is vital to elicit not just respondents’ religious affiliations, but also their level of participation within that religion.
Diocletian’S Victory Column And The Rhetoric Of Spectacular Disruption, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Diocletian’S Victory Column And The Rhetoric Of Spectacular Disruption, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
This essay explores how the powerful system of cultural references in the architecture of Alexandria is disrupted by Roman visual rhetoric. Specifically, the essay closely analyzes Diocletian’s Victory Column, a monument to the third-century Roman ruler who put down an Alexandrian uprising. The authors argue that Rome employed a visual rhetoric of spectacular disruption as a means to insert itself into the city’s historical identity even after its siege created widespread disease and starvation. The essay builds on the substantial scholarship on public memory by describing a kind of rhetoric that poses a political, existential challenge to a reigning cultural …
Mitt Romney’S Paralipsis: (Un)Veiling Jesus In “Faith In America”, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Mitt Romney’S Paralipsis: (Un)Veiling Jesus In “Faith In America”, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has been a topic of suspicion and debate among Christian conservatives. Romney addressed the issue in a 2007 address titled “Faith in America.” This article argues that Romney’s use of paralipsis helps to explain the divergent popular and academic responses to the speech. Paralipsis may be used as more than a mere stylistic device; it may also be employed as a comprehensive rhetorical strategy in an increasingly polarized political culture.
Cathedral Of Kairos: Rhetoric And Revelation In The “National House Of Prayer”, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Cathedral Of Kairos: Rhetoric And Revelation In The “National House Of Prayer”, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Traditionally, kairos is defined by its transience. Scholars assume that in order to capitalize on the rhetorical power of kairos, a speaker must capture the “opportune moment” before it passes. his article makes the case that the kairic moment can be sustained indefinitely through the sacralization of physical space. Linking rhetorical theories of kairos as “God’s time” to Mircea Eliade’s discussion of “sacred hierophanies,” the article performs an analysis of the National Cathedral in Washington DC and concludes that rhetoric can circumvent traditional contingencies when deployed within kairic space.
Review: "Of Africa", Aaron Eastley
Review: "Of Africa", Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
“A truly illuminating exploration of Africa,” suggests Wole Soyinka in the preface of his new book, Of Africa, “has yet to take place.” Soyinka is not writing here of a physical exploration, of course, but of a humanistic or spiritual one. This, at the root, is what the eight essays that comprise Of Africa urge readers to consider: ways in which Africa can lead the world forward into “a deeply craved Age of Universal Understanding.” In Soyinka’s estimation Africa today is very nearly as misapprehended and undervalued by the world at large as ever it was in the past. But …
Oath Rhetoric, Political Identity, And The Case Of Jon Huntsman, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Oath Rhetoric, Political Identity, And The Case Of Jon Huntsman, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
Oath rhetoric took center stage during the 2011-2072 presidential campaign, particularly during the Republican primary races. Several conservative organizations invited candidates to sign pledges, vows, or, as I label them collectively, oaths in an effort to secure the candidates' allegiance to particular polices and communities. Through a close concept-oriented analysis of a representative artifact (the Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge) and candidate Jon Huntsman's refusal to sign it, this essay concludes that oaths serve important rhetorical functions at the personal, cultural, and political level. Whereas traditional political argument in the democratic tradition is meant lo create openings for action, oath rhetoric …
Rhetorical Invention In Public Speaking Textbooks And Classrooms, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Rhetorical Invention In Public Speaking Textbooks And Classrooms, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
This essay examines how three of the most popular public speaking textbooks address rhetorical invention. The essay argues that textbooks minimize the discursive space shared by speakers and audiences in public speaking classrooms. As a consequence, topic and argument invention is framed largely as an internal affair that occurs prior to the speaker’s interaction with the audience. The essay concludes with recommendations for teaching invention by reframing the public speaking classroom as a protopublic space.
Conrad, "The Times", And Some Explorers, Aaron Eastley
Conrad, "The Times", And Some Explorers, Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
Even in a day when historicism in literary studies is ubiquitous, the pitch and duration of historicist fervor that has surrounded Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is extraordinary. Since its original publication over a century ago, the text has flourished amid a swarm of meta-textual narratives variously critical, political, philosophical, and historical. As Benita Parry attests, Heart of Darkness has enjoyed a “singular afterlife” (41), one that Allan Simmons aptly captures in the metaphor of “a pendulum swinging back and forth between aesthetics and history” (104). First appearing serially as “The Heart of Darkness” in three monthly installments of Blackwood’s Edinburgh …
Louisa May Alcott In Her Own Time: An Introduction Through Her Printed Works, Maggie Kopp
Louisa May Alcott In Her Own Time: An Introduction Through Her Printed Works, Maggie Kopp
Faculty Publications
Text and slides of presentation given at Orem Public Library, 19 April 2011.
“Which Is The Wisest Course?”: Political Power And Prophetic Agency In Nineteenth-Century Mormon Rhetoric, Richard Benjamin Crosby
“Which Is The Wisest Course?”: Political Power And Prophetic Agency In Nineteenth-Century Mormon Rhetoric, Richard Benjamin Crosby
Faculty Publications
This article enters the conversation about religion and communication at the crossing of two important but under-traveled paths: prophetic rhetoric and Mormonism. Mormon polygamy has a rich and controversial history that includes a series of public arguments and internal debates over how to navigate the historically radical religion through the political landscape of nineteenth-century mainstream America. Wilford Woodruff, president and prophet of the church when the government compelled the Mormons to stop the practice of polygamy, needed to end “plural marriage” without undermining the vitality of the church’s revelatory claims. I argue that Woodruff’s response breaks the limited rules of …
Area Of Enigma: V. S. Naipaul And The East Indian Revival In Trinidad, Aaron Eastley
Area Of Enigma: V. S. Naipaul And The East Indian Revival In Trinidad, Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
On March 29, 1949, V.S. Naipaul was front-page news in the Trinidad Guardian. “Special ‘Schol’ Urged for QRC Student,” the headline stated, and beneath was a photo of a quietly smiling teenage Naipaul, looking studious and benign in a pair of large black-rimmed glasses (“Special”). Naipaul, the article reports, had earned marks of distinction in Spanish and French on the Cambridge Higher School Certificate Examination, but was not eligible for a Colonial Scholarship to study in England owing to a recently-introduced technicality. Through no fault of his own he had not completed all of the requisite course work to qualify …
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (T-Addendum), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (T-Addendum), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
Faculty Publications
An Annotated Bibliography of Books Printed in England before 1700 and housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B. Lee Library.
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (A-E), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (A-E), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
Faculty Publications
An Annotated Bibliography of Books Printed in England before 1700 and housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B. Lee Library.
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (F-L), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (F-L), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
Faculty Publications
An Annotated Bibliography of Books Printed in England before 1700 and housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B. Lee Library.
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (M-S), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
A Pilgrimage Through English History And Culture (M-S), Gary P. Gillum, Susan Wheelwright O'Connor, Alexa Hysi
Faculty Publications
An Annotated Bibliography of Books Printed in England before 1700 and housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B. Lee Library.
To Give Is Better Than To Receive: The Benefits Of Peer Review To The Reviewer’S Own Writing, Wendy Baker, Kristi Lundstrom
To Give Is Better Than To Receive: The Benefits Of Peer Review To The Reviewer’S Own Writing, Wendy Baker, Kristi Lundstrom
Faculty Publications
Although peer review has been shown to be beneficial in many writing classrooms, the benefits of peer review to the reviewer, or the student giving feedback, has not been thoroughly investigated in second-language writing research. The purpose of this study is to determine which is more beneficial to improving student writing: giving or receiving peer feedback. The study was conducted at an intensive English institute with ninety-one students in nine writing classes at two proficiency levels. The ‘‘givers’’ reviewed anonymous papers but received no peer feedback over the course of the semester, while the ‘‘receivers’’ received feedback but did not …
V.S. Naipaul And The 1946 Trinidad General Election, Aaron Eastley
V.S. Naipaul And The 1946 Trinidad General Election, Aaron Eastley
Faculty Publications
On 1 July 1946 the first election featuring universal adult suffrage was held in Trinidad. As reported in the island’s leading newspaper of the day, the Trinidad Guardian, the “privilege of a lowered franchise” expanded the electorate nearly tenfold, from approximately 30,000 to 259,000 eligible voters (“Momentous”). This was a precipitous change, especially in a colony where voting even on a limited scale had only been instituted a couple of decades before (1925), in an era when lingering doubts about the qualifications of nonwhites and women had motivated the institution of property, literacy, and age requirements that disenfranchised all but …
Child–Adult Differences In Second-Language Phonological Learning: The Role Of Cross-Language Similarity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich, James E. Flege, Molly Mack, Randall Halter
Child–Adult Differences In Second-Language Phonological Learning: The Role Of Cross-Language Similarity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich, James E. Flege, Molly Mack, Randall Halter
Faculty Publications
This study evaluated whether age effects on second language (L2) speech learning derive from changes in how the native language (L1) and L2 sound systems interact. According to the “interaction hypothesis” (IH), the older the L2 learner, the less likely the learner is able to establish new vowel categories needed for accurate L2 vowel production and perception because, with age, L1 vowel categories become more likely to perceptually encompass neighboring L2 vowels. These IH predictions were evaluated in two experiments involving 64 native Korean- and English-speaking children and adults. Experiment 1 determined, as predicted, that the Korean children were less …
Lexical And Segmental Influences On Child And Adult Learners’ Production Of Second Language Vowels, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich
Lexical And Segmental Influences On Child And Adult Learners’ Production Of Second Language Vowels, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Pavel Trofimovich
Faculty Publications
This study examined how two segmental or sound-related factors (crosslanguage perceptual similarity, syllabic context) as well as two lexical or wordrelated factors (word frequency, subjective word familiarity) influenced the production of eight English vowels by 40 Korean children and adults exposed to English in the U.S. for an average of 1 and 7 years. Results of two experiments revealed that lexical factors affected adults’ second language (L2) production more than children’s and depended (at least for adults) on amount of L2 experience. Lexical influences on L2 production were obtained when segmental influences were particularly strong (for dissimilar L2 vowels or …