Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Intermarried Couples And "Multiculturalism" In Japan, Kaori Mori Want

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Intermarried Couples and 'Multiculturalism' in Japan" Kaori Mori Want discusses why hyphenated names for the children of intermarried children are important for the achievement of multiculturalism in Japan in an era of globalization. In Japan the number of people who marry interracially or inter-ethnically is increasing, but changes to naming practices must occur for Japan to become a multicultural society. Intermarriage is not a reliable indicator of the maturity of multiculturalism. Foreign residents who have intermarried in Japan do not have the rights of Japanese, such as those of voting, social welfare, education, and so on. This …

Wait Upon Ishiguro, Englishness, And Class, Mustapha Marrouchi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Wait upon Ishiguro, Englishness, and Class" Mustapha Marrouchi analyzes Kazuo Ishiguro's novels with focus on the writer's interest in Japanese culture and his preoccupation with matters of class in England. Marrouchi analyzes Ishiguro's novels as located astride of East, West, and the in-between: his precise, exquisitely made stories are shadowed by absences and silences, balanced "between elegy and irony" (Rushdie) and this is so whether the speaker is the obsessive butler in The Remains of the Day or one of the demented heroes in The Unconsoled or When We Were Orphans or the Japanese, guilty or exiled, …

The Narration Of Transnational Territory In Kingston's China Men And Kim's 검은 꽃 (Black Flower), Ju Young Jin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Narration of Transnational Territory in Kingston's China Men and Kim's 검은 꽃 (Black Flower)" Ju Young Jin analyzes Maxine Hong Kingston's and Young-Ha Kim's novels both of which feature East Asian indentured workers in the U.S. and Mexico, respectively. Jin traces the way in which the transnational subjects in the two novels create a textual territory by displacing national histories in a period that has witnessed an increase in indentured workers from East Asia to American continents. Kim creates an apocryphal history of the Korean presence in the New World reimagining the forgotten past by interweaving …

Virtuality, Nationalism, And Globalization In Zhang's Hero, Ping Zhu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Virtuality, Nationalism, and Globalization in Zhang's Hero" Ping Zhu examines how Yimou Zhang's martial arts film dislodges the historical tale from its spatiotemporal context by creating virtual images, characters, narratives, and ideologies, and presents the virtual idea of tianxia (天下) (all under heaven) as an active mode of participation in the virtual global. Amidst the surge of virtuality in its cinematic space, with Hero Zhang aims to eclipse the national by a higher order: a homogenizing and harmonizing order that originates in traditional Chinese culture and that is compatible with the post-9/11 world order. However, Zhu …

Cultural Hybridization In A 1930s Taiwanese Popular Song, Mei-Wen Lee, Timothy P. Urban

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Cultural Hybridization in a 1930s Taiwanese Popular Song" Mei-Wen Lee and Timothy P. Urban present a comparison of the three different sets of lyrics used for the melody of the 1930s Taiwanese popular song, "Moonlight Sorrow": Taiwanese lyrics used by Yu-Xian Deng and Tian-Wang Chou in their 1933 arrangement, Japanese lyrics by Kurihara Hakuya from the late 1930s, and Mandarin lyrics added by Nu Chuan in the 1960s. Lee and Urban examine three orchestral settings of the "Moonlight Sorrow" melody. In the first orchestral version Japanese composer Hayakawa Masaaki uses the melody in a manner similar to …

Masereel, Lu, And The Development Of The Woodcut Picture Book (連環畫) In China, Tie Xiao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Masereel, Lu, and the Development of the Woodcut Picture Book (連環畫) in China" Tie Xiao situates Chinese "continuous pictorial narratives" (lianxu tuhua) by radical woodcut artists in the 1930s within a global exchange of the visual. Further, Xiao examines woodcut artists' efforts to develop an expressive form of mass-oriented art through creative engagement with the Japanese creative print (hanga) movement and the "woodcut novels" by the Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel. Xiao argues that central to self-produced woodcut pictorial narratives is the dilemma between the intimate and private impulse of self-expression and the …

Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs And The Rhetoric Of “Poignant Presence”: What Brings The War Home?, Kelly Ann Wakeland

Communication Studies

This paper will briefly discuss the origins of photography, photojournalism, Joseph Pulitzer and his involvement with the arts. Then we will explore why it is important to study visuals, visual rhetoric, and what “poignant presence” is as related to three recent Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, all from the Breaking News Category and featuring combat in war.

Visual Rhetoric Through The Years, Leah Kind

Rhetoric Unit

This exercise gives students an introduction to some of the language and terminology of visual rhetoric in a brief teacher-guided discussion. Following the discussion, students, in small groups, will find both a vintage print advertisement and a current print ad within the same general category and examine how different forms of appeals have evolved through time, how ads now target their specific audiences, and, in general, how ads have changed, and why. Groups will present their findings to the class. Having the opportunity to see what in advertising has changed (as well as what has not changed) will allow students …

Actants, Agents, And Assemblages: Delivery And Writing In An Age Of New Media, Steven Holmes

All Dissertations

This dissertation redefines the rhetorical canon of delivery by drawing on interdisciplinary theories of technology and materiality, including hardware and software studies, assemblage theory, and actor-network theory. Rhetorical theorists and composition scholars have correctly equated the technological medium with delivery, but also have focused exclusively on the circulation of symbolic forces rather than the persuasive agency of technology itself, thus eliding the affordances and constraints posed by technological actors at the non-symbolic levels of hardware, software, protocol, and algorithms. I establish a historical precedent in classical theorists such as Demosthenes, Cicero, and Quintilian that acknowledges their understanding of the role …

A Need For Green: An Approach For Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Practices At The University Of Rhode Island, Mary Vidal, Alyssa Mason

Senior Honors Projects

“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man details his yearlong experiment to live without creating any environmental impact. As sophomores we were inspired by Beavan’s journey but also skeptical of living a completely no-impact lifestyle as college-students. Although we were motivated to try to live sustainably, our efforts were dormant until our junior year. That year we decided that we would attempt to live up to the standards set forth by Beavan--understanding that some practices would be harder …

Delayed Action Or Locomotion? Con/Versions Of Reality In Dramatism And Inception, Jacob Greene

All Theses

This essay seeks to draw out the connections between perceptual conversions of reality within the work of Kenneth Burke and the film Inception (Christopher Nolan 2010). By establishing the degree to which Inception portrays an impossible pursuit of objective reality, one can better understand how dramatism implicitly instigates a similar pursuit of a mythic reality separate from any kind of orientational contingency. As way of reacting to this misconception of dramatism made apparent through the metaphor provided by the film, I want to foreground the concept of 'delayed action' as the fundamental basis of Burke's formulation of dramatism in A …

Pietro Bembo’S Bias: Patronage, History, And The Italic Wars, Zachary M. Lizee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Italic Wars, the Italian peninsula experienced foreign invasions and internal discord between rivaling duchies and city-states. Florence and Venice both faced internal and external discord due to the constant wars and political in fighting. Venetian Pietro Bembo wrote historical accounts of this period during the Renaissance. His contemporaries, Marino Sanudo, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini, also wrote historical accounts of this time. My research spotlights Bembo’s history of the Venetian Republic. This history was written in a supposedly objective fashion, yet, scholarship shows that historical writing from this time contained bias. I focused on Bembo because there is …

Introduction To The Special Issue On Western Cultures Of Intellectual Property, Krista Kennedy, Rebecca Moore Howard

Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

(Re)Constructing A Landmark: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Brown V Board Of Education At Fifty, Christine A. Geyet

Writing Program – Dissertations

This dissertation examines the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary with emphasis on its civic and social rhetorical functions. The analysis focuses on the two week period leading up to the fiftieth anniversary and the dedication of the Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka. Data was gathered from various web sites related to the National Historic Site and the events in Topeka on the weekend it was dedicated, and from database records of national and international news sources. These materials were analyzed in three categories beginning with the …

Translingualism In Post-Secondary Writing And Language Instruction : Negotiating Language Ideologies In Policies And Pedagogical Practices., Nancy Bou Ayash

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on text-oriented data from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, this study examines how writing teachers and students constantly negotiate tensions between translingual sociolinguistic realities on one hand and monolingualist assumptions about language and language relations on another that dominate curricular and pedagogical designs in first year writing courses. The study involves a multiplicity of data sources, such as official institutional documents, individual instructional materials, classroom observations, structured interviews, and a method of "talk around texts." Writing teachers in this study sensitively grappled with tensions between the constant political pressures of generating the status quo and their ideological orientations …

No Greater Love: Recognition, Transformation, And Friendship In The Harry Potter Series, Stephen Parish

Masters Theses

Nobody today doubts the momentous influence the Harry Potter series has had on a generation of readers. Many scholars and critics assume Harry's place amongst other great works of children's literature, and indeed the series has brought about a revival in children's literature scholarship. Despite this popularity, many critics question the series' aesthetics, its attention to moral demeanor. Therefore, what element exists in Harry Potter that could enforce its aesthetic quality? Based on a rhetorical reading of the texts, my thesis upholds the aesthetic nature of the books through an analysis of the trio's friendship and and its impact on …

Life Inside The Spectacle: David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, And Storytelling In The Age Of Entertainment, John Hawkins

Masters Theses

This project explores George Saunders's In Persuasion Nation and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest as interventionary literature. The thesis asserts that the two works confront the problems of isolation and dehumanization created by entertainment-based consumerism; they do so by depicting satirically exaggerated consumer societies and placing well-developed, sympathetic characters in those settings. The thesis includes a consideration of Jameson and deBord's theories of spectacle and Wallace's stated concerns with postmodern irony as an ineffective form of critique.

Schulz's Religion: Exploring Faith In The Mainstream Media Through The Peanuts Franchise, Stephen James Lind

All Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of various theoretical and cultural issues surrounding depictions of religion and spirituality in mainstream entertainment media properties. Such portrayals cultivate particular cultural norms that dictate the conditions of public and private discourse on religion, and in this study, these issues are approached through a mixed-method study guided by the Peanuts franchise. The Peanuts franchise is a provocatively rich launching point for analysis of dominant media cultures, given its colossal success in the secular mainstream entertainment industry and its explicit references to and even affirmations of Christian theology. Throughout the study, the references to religion manifested …

Seven Strangers, Rhetorical Devices For Hospitality, Epiphany, And Repentance In The Media Flood, Jimmy Butts

All Dissertations

Beginning with the foundation that rhetorical devices are often inherently defamiliarizing, often to productive ends, this study explores the theories, ethics, and praxis behind defamiliarizing rhetorical tactics. Because of the cultural shift toward increasing novelty within 21st century media production, it is progressively difficult for the contemporary writer to speak into the boisterous public sphere, which in turn creates a growing need for uniquely unfamiliar modes of rhetorical intervention. Strangeness offers a lens for seeing deliberate stylistic choices within the information flood; additionally, it asks us to consider how we can compose for potentially disinterested audiences. The examination also suggests …

A Need For Green: An Approach For Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Practices At The University Of Rhode Island, Alyssa Mason, Mary Vidal

Senior Honors Projects

“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man details his yearlong experiment to live without creating any environmental impact. As sophomores we were inspired by Beavan’s journey but also skeptical of living a completely no-impact lifestyle as college-students. Although we were motivated to try to live sustainably, our efforts were dormant until our junior year. That year we decided that we would attempt to live up to the standards set forth by Beavan--understanding that some practices would be harder …

Reading And Religion: Reconciling Diverse Reading Patterns And The First Year Composition Classroom, Evelyn Baldwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While tolerance is the supposed standard of the first-year composition classroom, the writing patterns and argumentation skills of self-identified Christian students often frustrate teachers and create classroom dissonance and interpersonal divergence. This work looks at what apologetic and devotional texts these students are reading before they enter the classroom and then analyzes these works to see how well their content aligns with Composition I reading and writing requirements. To do this, the study takes information from two very distinct groups: religious leaders of young adults and Composition I instructors. The study begins by surveying religious workers to identify the top …

President Barack Obama And The Commencement Of A New Perspective On Epideictic Speeches, Milene Ortega Ribeiro

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Commencement speakers are typically expected to praise students and motivate them. When the commencement speaker is a President, the expectation is different. This thesis investigated the functions of epideictic address in light of the rhetorical presidency doctrine. Close textual analysis of the three most controversial commencement speeches delivered by President Barack Obama revealed that the challenge of fulfilling the expectations of a commencement address, while responding to rhetorical problems, required the President to adopt complex rhetorical strategies. The predominant strategies included humor, strategic use of rhetorical presence, and ideological identification. The President used strategies that allowed him to be the …

The King’S Table: A Semiotic Analysis Of A Medieval Noble Banquet, Robert Raymond Shaffer

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores an expanded definition of the words profile and profiling in order to demonstrate how a person or people construct images of themselves in order to join with, mold, and position themselves over other people or groups. For the purposes of this thesis, profiles are manifested in the form of physical events or tangible artifacts and are composed to represent, define, and impose the character of the person presenting the profile. Specifically, I focus on an actual medieval banquet in honor of King Richard II hosted in London on September 23,1387.

I bring together semiotic theories common to …

Saying 'I' And Meaning It: The Transformative Process Of Producing The Audio Essay, Andrea Renea Oyarzabal

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There is much debate in composition theory about how students use features of speech in their writing. Proponents of allowing students to use speech features in writing suggest it promotes productivity; critics suggest that doing so is detrimental to students’ understanding of academic writing. In this study, the author compares two student assignments: the audio essay, an assignment that asks students to compose an essay that is recorded, and the research-based essay, which is composed as a text only. Using Corpus Linguistics computer software tools, grammar features are analyzed for similarities and differences between the essays. Grammar features are also …

Audiobiography: A Sonic Memoir Of The 1960s, John F. Barber

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This essay and its accompanying sound file speak to a personal narrative of the author's life in the 1960s, a time of tremendous social, political, and cultural change. By creating a narrative of his life at the time, sampled from period radio and television reports/programs, the author attempts to recreate the rhetorical context of his life at that time. The desired end result is a personal narrative with a broader appeal. Not a typical radio documentary, however, nor a narrated history, the intent of Sounds of My Life: A sixties radio narrative is instead to remix the medium of its …

The Oral Aural Walter Ong, Abigail Lambke

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This is a transcription of Abigail Lambke's words during the audio piece “The Oral Aural Walter Ong." During the piece, Abigail intersperses her own commentary with excerpts from two of Ong's recorded lectures: “The End of the Age of Literacy," and “The Future of Literacy." Walter Ong explicitly barred transcription of one of these lectures, exclusively granting permission for the piece to be reproduced in audio. To honor that request, none of Ong's words will be transcribed here. The Oral Aural Walter Ong Music: Kevin MacLeod “Peace Of Mind" Hello. I am Abigail Lambke and this is “The Oral Aural …

Sonic Rhetorics: A Mashed-Up Introduction In Sound, Jon Stone, Steph Ceraso

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Welcome to the special-themed Sonic Rhetorics issue of Harlot. Putting this issue together was a thoroughly collaborative process that involved a lot of back and forth with authors about their work, creative visions, and sonic rhetorics. For months we have been sounding out, experimenting with, and synthesizing these pieces until they seemed to hit the right note. So, rather than giving an authoratative summary of individual pieces, we thought it made more sense for contributors to speak (and sound) for themselves--and together. When you press play, you will hear a mashup of the sounds and soundbites from many of this …

Making Meaning In Musical Mixes, Kyle D. Stedman

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

SIDE A

Growing Meanings :: From Arrangement... :: ...To Development :: This Project :: My Mix

SIDE B

Developing Sounds :: Developing Expectations :: Digital Tools :: Developing Moods :: Transitions Developing Ideas/Voices :: The Self as Audience :: Fulfilling Promises :: Conclusions for Mix-Makers :: Credits

This piece explores the musical rhetorics at work in a mix CD I created for two (at times contrasting) purposes: as a gift for friends, and as an accompaniment in the car as I moved across the country. I suggest that in a linear, musical mix, the term "development" as used in music …

Recitative: The Persuasive Tenor Of Jazz Culture In Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, And John Coltrane, Andrew Vogel

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Jazz is more than music. Jazz is a culture defined by a progressive ethos encoded in sound. By putting the poetry and music of Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, and John Coltrane into conversation, this essay demonstrates the versatility and vitality of jazz culture. However, jazz culture has come to be drowned out in America today, and so I argue for a return to the voices of jazz's past so that we can give a new ear to jazz artists working today. Such listening should be seen as a means to reinvigorate progressive values today and in the future.

Finding Nowhere, Nathan Edwards

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

My audio/visual presentation, Nowhere, was a personal challenge to create a persuasive yet openly-interpretable message through a fully non-narrative presentation, leaving focus purely on the sound design, visual imagery, and the interaction between the two.The presentation and accompanying article explore questions surrounding the ways in which an artistic medium effects how our senses absorb an artistic presentation and how a message is most effectively conveyed.