Abstract

This essay explores rhetoric tropologically through various strophes: antistrophe, catastrophe, and apostrophe. Our purpose is to delineate problems and possibilities that these tropes pose for rhetoric in an effort to create new rhetorics. We seek to display the antistrophic and catastrophic figurations of rhetoric and then use visual lenses of photography and cinema to disrupt the figurations. Following the disruption, we seek to heighten sensibilities to other figurations, in particular an apostrophic figuration. We cast apostrophe as a figure for change because it marks a deeply felt turn toward difference and otherness. Turned as such, rhetoric becomes erotic.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2002

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2002 Rhetoric Society of America.

The definitive version is available at: http://associationdatabase.com/aws/RSA/pt/sd/news_article/9645/Mari%20Lee/layout_details/false

Full Citation:

Sutton, Jane, and Mari Lee Mifsud. "Figuring Rhetoric: From Antistrophe to Apostrophe through Catastrophe." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 32, no. 4 (2002): 29-49.

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