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Rhetorical Animals

Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion

Kristian Bjørkdahl editor Alex C Parrish editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:30th Nov '17

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Rhetorical Animals cover

For this edited volume, the editors solicited chapters that investigate the place of nonhuman animals in the purview of rhetorical theory; what it would mean to communicate beyond the human community; how rhetoric reveals our "brute roots." In other words, this book investigates themes that enlighten us about likely or possible implications of the animal turn within rhetorical studies. The present book is unique in its focus on the call for nonanthropocentrism in rhetorical studies. Although there have been many hints in recent years that rhetoric is beginning to consider the implications of the animal turn, as yet no other anthology makes this its explicit starting point and sustained objective. Thus, the various contributions to this book promise to further the ongoing debate about what rhetoric might be after it sheds its long-standing humanistic bias.

In the excellent collection Rhetorical Animals, Bjørkdahl and Parrish have collected a range of robust investigations on the persuasive capacities of animals. These chapters expand existing conversations on ethics, rhetorics, and materiality, while pointing to new directions for exploring intra-animal persuasions, human-animal relationships, and the biotic bases for persuasion. Further, the scholars assembled here trouble longstanding assumptions about what rhetoric is, how it functions, and who has access to it, all while being critical and personal in equal measure. -- Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, Oregon State University

ISBN: 9781498558457

Dimensions: 239mm x 158mm x 27mm

Weight: 590g

318 pages