Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics Books

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDrawing on a rich body of archival and ethnographic research, Queering Drag: Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending (Indiana UP, 2020) illuminates diverse examples of theatrical gender-bending. It shows how, in each case, standard drag discourses do not sufficiently capture the complexity of performers' intents and methods or provide a strong enough foundation for holistically evaluating the impact of this work. Queering Drag offers a redefinition of the genre centralized in the performer's construction and presentation of a "queer" version of hegemonic identity. It also models a new set of tools for analyzing drag as a process of intents and methods enacted to effect specific goals. The book won the 2021 John Leo and Dana Heller Award for Best Book in LGBTQ Studies from the Popular Culture Association and was named one of NBC's "10 LGBTQ books to watch out for in 2020." -- Isabel Machado * New Books Network *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPreface1. What's in a Name? Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending 2. "Masculine Women, Feminine Men": Variety and Vaudevillian Male Impersonators 3. Mythical, "Sexless" Characters: Identity Borders in El Teatro Campesino 4. The "First Punch" at Stonewall: Counteridentification Butch Acts 5. Bent Means "Not Quite Straight": Kinging as DisidentificationConclusion: Bending RhetoricBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Faithful Persuasion David S. Cunningham offers the contemporary era''s first sustained account of the relationship between rhetoric and Christian theology. Cunningham argues that Christian thinkers should abandon their attempts to codify argumentation within the canons of formal logic and suggests that they should instead come to a more organic understanding of the process of persuasion. This rhetorical approach to theology can cast new light on longstanding theological controversies and establish a new agenda for the study of the methods, sources, and norms of Christian theology.Drawing chiefly upon the rhetorical insights of Aristotle, and on the reappropriation of Aristotle's views by numerous modern rhetoriciansranging from John Henry Newman to Kenneth Burke and Chaim PerelmanCunningham establishes a firm foundation from which to support his central assertion that Christian theology can best be understood as a form of persuasive argument.' In addition, he explorTrade Review"This book is an important contribution to theological method and one that deserves a wide reading. Cunningham has explored a dimension of theology that has been almost entirely overlooked in the history of its disciplinary self-understanding, and he offers imaginative suggestions for the implementation of the approach he commends." —Theological Studies"This work will be widely appreciated by many. Certainly it falls within the great learned tradition of Cardinal Newman and Oxbridge theology over the last hundred years." —The Journal of Religion

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Book SynopsisBy clarifying the ways in which agreement on moral issues between people from different traditions can be pursued through moral discourse, this book provides a coherent conceptual framework for addressing the political, social and environmental problems arising from unresolved moral conflict.Trade Review“The book is a helpful contribution to ongoing conversations about whether and how persons from very different moral traditions may argue productively about moral issues across cultural and religious gulfs.” —Theological Studies“Moral Discourse in a Pluralistic World is not only an eloquent philosophical work, but also very relevant for moral practice. It is a book to be studied and taken to heart.” —Journal of Moral Education

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Book SynopsisAn empirical study of hate speech in Hungary, examining the cultural foundations of public communication and how cultural thinking can be used to inform political action through public expression.Trade Review“This book is interesting and provocative, not to say courageous. It takes a term that arouses intense passions in the United States and analyzes it in an alien cultural/political context in ways that go beyond the usual tenor of U.S. conversations on such topics, showing that even positions one may find odious have an internal ‘logic’ in local sociohistorical contexts. That alone is an important contribution to scholarship on political debate, which usually assumes competing ‘sides’ and, at least implicitly, privileges certain positions over others. In this way, the analysis poses provocative questions about scholars’ own potential ‘cultural’ biases and political engagements. (Whether scholars are ready to accept the challenge is another question.)”—Cezar M. Ornatowski,San Diego State University“David Boromisza-Habashi’s book offers a fascinating cultural analysis of the highly charged public conversation that surrounded Hungarian ‘hate speech’ as a term for talk and a social problem at a particular juncture in the country’s history. It is an exemplary study of the way speakers breathe meaning and life into a cultural key symbol in contesting issues of identity, morality, and social action in an intensely divisive political context. While richly resonant with local Hungarian culture and history, this study addresses themes and concerns that many readers will find pertinent to their own cultural worlds. Intriguingly, the book makes a bold move by reaching beyond ethnographic interpretation and analysis towards a consideration of the potential social and activist uses of cultural discourse analysis as a form of ‘counsel.’ This book will be of great interest to communication scholars, anthropologists, political scientists, and students of law, among others.”—Tamar Katriel,University of Haifa“This book joins an ethnographic examination of culture with public discourse in a profound and compelling account of Hungary’s struggles to forge shared meaning about ‘hate speech.’ Its relevance to the study of culturally situated communication practices extends beyond a particular nation and its historical moment, offering an important perspective on speech as action. It is also splendidly readable, both rich in careful detail and convincing in its wide-ranging theoretical implications.”—Kristine Muñoz,University of Iowa“Scholars interested in national identity, freedom of expression, and democratic deliberation will all find this book a useful addition to their libraries.”—Mary E. Stuckey Political Communication“Boromisza-Habashi thoroughly displays the connection between public discourse and cultural knowledge in an accessible fashion, and examines key terms of the debate, such as content and tone, in depth. For practitioners, the text uncovers the nuances of culture as they inform political arguments. . . . Boromisza-Habashi offers a thorough accounting of the cultural discourses that compose a passionate public debate regarding hate speech in free societies.”—Aaron Hess The Quarterly Journal of SpeechTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Cultural Thinking About Social Issues1 History as Context2 Diversity of Meaning3 Interpretations: Tone Versus Content4 Interpretations: How to Sanction “Hate Speech”5 Rhetorical Resistance6 From Cultural Knowledge to Political ActionAppendix: Theory and MethodsNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisExplores the question of how women craft meaningful belonging to national, regional, and global communities when belonging as a citizen becomes untenable. Evaluates the rhetorical practices that enable alternative belongings, such as denizenship, cosmopolitan nationalism, and transnational connectivity.Trade Review“In this provocative and compelling book, Belinda Stillion Southard offers an illuminating answer to the fundamental question of how people assert their membership in political communities. Considering cases of women's leadership in Africa, Stillion Southard unpacks the complex rhetorical dynamics of agency in a transnational era. She explores how women overcame skepticism and hostility at regional, national, and international levels to articulate roles as indispensable community members. How to Belong offers key insights on the relationship between individual and community.”—Robert Asen,author of Democracy, Deliberation, and Education“How to Belong offers a powerful account of how women leaders negotiate geographical and gendered boundaries of peacemaking and belonging in a transnational world. Drawing on transnational feminist rhetorical scholarship and studies in global governance, Belinda Stillion Southard interweaves an incisive analysis of the embodied rhetorical strategies of West African and South American women leaders and their imagining of cosmopolitan citizenship and in the process opens up important new understandings of feminist rhetorical agency as a politics of relation.”—Wendy S. Hesford,author of Spectacular Rhetorics: Human Rights Visions, Recognitions, Feminisms “Original and compelling, How to Belong transforms citizenship from a matter of location to one of embodied belonging and relationship. Through her riveting analyses, Southard reveals how women’s rhetorical practices—in West African peace networks, Liberian elections, and UN global governance—create regional, national, and global relationships, and in her careful arguments, she brilliantly enlarges our knowledge of performative deliberation, women’s rhetoric, and transnationalism.”—Arabella Lyon,author of Deliberative Acts: Democracy, Rhetoric, and Rights“Written with elegant clarity, Stillion Southard’s book boldly theorizes collective identity outside the bounds of nationality and citizenship. The book offers three case studies that inspire political imagination and hope. The Peace Women, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Michelle Bachelet teach lessons we all should learn.”—Catherine Helen Palczewski,coauthor of Gender in Communication: A Critical Introduction“How to Belong makes important interventions into rhetorical studies of national belonging, women’s agency, and citizenship, all from case studies embedded in deeply intertwined transnational contexts. Stillion Southard joins a small but powerful group of transnational feminist rhetoric scholars by expertly showing connections across often disparate and confrontational subject positions—protesters, politicians, and leaders of international governance organizations. A must-read for any scholar interested in the rhetorical ingenuity of women around the globe.”—Karma Chavez,author of Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities“How to Belong is a must-read for anyone interested in on-the-ground feminist rhetorical agency in action. It shows how, across the globe, women have used rhetorical acuity and skill not only to reimagine and negotiate change in their communities but also to craft new notions of belonging that reach beyond the nation-state.”—Rebecca Dingo,author of Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing Table of ContentsContentsList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Rhetorics of Belonging in a Transnational World1 Belonging as Denizenship: Peace Women and Regional Dwelling2 Belonging as Cosmopolitanism: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s New Nationalism 3 Belonging as Connectivity: Michelle Bachelet’s Transnational GovernanceConclusion: How to Belong (or Not) to the Nation-StateNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA rhetorical analysis of conventional and unconventional models of homeless advocacy that positions each in relation to perennial anxieties about citizens’ abilities to fulfill democratic obligations. Trade Review“Melanie Loehwing importantly invites readers to consider these issues explicitly. Loehwing encourages us to understand how these assumptions operate and to evaluate them, reconstructing our notions of community as necessary. In doing so, we may build a new civic home on a firmer foundation of justice, equality, and mutual respect.”—Robert Asen Philosophy and Rhetoric“Approaches a topic connected to marginalized voices that is sorely missing from rhetorical studies and, in many cases, from critical analysis writ large: the discourse of, and rhetoric about, homeless communities. The value of this study is that it demonstrates the transformative benefits of viewing homelessness advocacy as a rhetorical means rooted in ‘home’ rather than just through and by instrumental and utile ends. Loehwing’s work serves as a watershed moment of exploring the double marginalization of homeless communities.”—Jason Black,author of American Indians and the Rhetoric of Removal and AllotmentTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Dwelling Within Democracy 1 The Rhetorical Conventions of Contemporary Homeless Advocacy 2 The Democratic Vision of Homeless Meal-Sharing Initiatives 3 The Democratic Bodies of the Homeless World Cup 4 The Democratic Temporalities of the Homeless Persons’Memorial Day Conclusion: Rhetorical Constructions of the Civic Home Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExamines case studies of popular culture as pessimistic rhetorical artifacts, and how non-traditional modes of argumentation can work rhetorically to overcome biases against pessimistic messaging.Trade Review“This work explores our contemporary fascination with pessimism with such a strange relish and joy that one can’t help but feel relief that the end of human exceptionalism means the opening of weird new narratives and worlds (rather than the dire existential crisis we expected). Rigorous and cynical while being jubilant, the book is a marvelous injection of vitalistic wrongness to a sometimes tedious field.”—Patricia MacCormack,author of Cinesexuality“A new and important perspective on pessimistic appeals. This book’s value lies in its connection of the old theme of pessimism to today’s dominant forms of culture and entertainment. This is a fruitful new approach and will interest people in rhetorical studies, philosophy, film studies, and other disciplines.”—Barry Brummett,author of Contemporary Apocalyptic Rhetoric“This book is an important and original contribution to the philosophy of rhetoric and persuasion. It is a provocative intervention into understanding how pessimism, perhaps best understood through feeling, maintains its rhetorical power.”—Samuel Boerboom Argumentation and Advocacy

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Book SynopsisA rhetorical study of the American political debate on gun violence and gun policy. Examines the role of public memory in shaping this discourse and its eventual policy outcomes.Trade Review“Written with passion, insight, and eloquence, After Gun Violence is a compelling exploration of a tragically American problem—regular, mass gun violence. Aligning himself with readers as a horrified witness to these deadly recurring events, Craig Rood balances outrage with perspective, weariness with resolve, sadness with hope that Americans may achieve mutual understanding on a topic that has produced mistrust and frustration. Rood respects the complexity of people’s different beliefs about guns while articulating a clear vision of a way forward. A stunning achievement.”—Robert Asen,author of Democracy, Deliberation, and Education“A thoughtful and sobering analysis of America’s inability to engage in serious deliberation about gun violence. Rood traces the way that past debates have created a sense that the problem is simply intractable and demonstrates the way recent efforts to deal with gun violence were crushed under the weight of past failures. Drawing on the long history of rhetoric, Rood is able not only to analyze the present difficulties but also to suggest productive ways to move these debates forward. The stakes for such a project have never been higher. Rood’s book should be required reading for any citizen wanting to engage in a real debate about the role of guns in American society.”—Kendall R. Phillips,co-director, The Lender Center for Social Justice“An empowering message of this book resides in the assurance that while we exist in this world that comes with its own meanings and past, we have the power within ourselves to change what language habits we use and pass down.”—Amanda Pasierb Journal of Public Deliberation“There could not be a more important time for a book like After Gun Violence—which connects the timely subjects of liberty, political discourse, and progress (or lack thereof). Although it was written with the specific intention of analyzing the gun debate through a rhetorical, academic lens, the lessons in After Gun Violence can be applied outside of the ivory tower and more broadly to issues beyond gun violence.”—Peter Rentzepis World Medical and Health Policy“Provides an instructive model for extending rhetorical interventions into the multifaceted impacts of gun violence, including police brutality, extremist vigilantism, urban violence, suicide, and domestic violence. . . . This framework invites rhetoricians, teachers, and community members to reflect on the recursive force of memory in the constructions of individual and collective identity, and it opens the door for further deliberative interventions into the material, emotional, and rhetorical tolls of political struggle.”—Richard Branscomb Rhetoric ReviewTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Deliberating Gun Violence1 Deliberation and Memory2 The Weight of the Past: Memory and the Second Amendment3 The Fleeting Past: Memory and Our Obligations to the Dead4 The Implicit Past: Memory and Racism5 Conclusions for Moving Beyond GridlockEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA rhetorical study of the American political debate on gun violence and gun policy. Examines the role of public memory in shaping this discourse and its eventual policy outcomes.Trade Review“Written with passion, insight, and eloquence, After Gun Violence is a compelling exploration of a tragically American problem—regular, mass gun violence. Aligning himself with readers as a horrified witness to these deadly recurring events, Craig Rood balances outrage with perspective, weariness with resolve, sadness with hope that Americans may achieve mutual understanding on a topic that has produced mistrust and frustration. Rood respects the complexity of people’s different beliefs about guns while articulating a clear vision of a way forward. A stunning achievement.”—Robert Asen,author of Democracy, Deliberation, and Education“A thoughtful and sobering analysis of America’s inability to engage in serious deliberation about gun violence. Rood traces the way that past debates have created a sense that the problem is simply intractable and demonstrates the way recent efforts to deal with gun violence were crushed under the weight of past failures. Drawing on the long history of rhetoric, Rood is able not only to analyze the present difficulties but also to suggest productive ways to move these debates forward. The stakes for such a project have never been higher. Rood’s book should be required reading for any citizen wanting to engage in a real debate about the role of guns in American society.”—Kendall R. Phillips,co-director, The Lender Center for Social Justice“An empowering message of this book resides in the assurance that while we exist in this world that comes with its own meanings and past, we have the power within ourselves to change what language habits we use and pass down.”—Amanda Pasierb Journal of Public Deliberation“There could not be a more important time for a book like After Gun Violence—which connects the timely subjects of liberty, political discourse, and progress (or lack thereof). Although it was written with the specific intention of analyzing the gun debate through a rhetorical, academic lens, the lessons in After Gun Violence can be applied outside of the ivory tower and more broadly to issues beyond gun violence.”—Peter Rentzepis World Medical and Health Policy“Provides an instructive model for extending rhetorical interventions into the multifaceted impacts of gun violence, including police brutality, extremist vigilantism, urban violence, suicide, and domestic violence. . . . This framework invites rhetoricians, teachers, and community members to reflect on the recursive force of memory in the constructions of individual and collective identity, and it opens the door for further deliberative interventions into the material, emotional, and rhetorical tolls of political struggle.”—Richard Branscomb Rhetoric ReviewTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Deliberating Gun Violence1 Deliberation and Memory2 The Weight of the Past: Memory and the Second Amendment3 The Fleeting Past: Memory and Our Obligations to the Dead4 The Implicit Past: Memory and Racism5 Conclusions for Moving Beyond GridlockEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIllustrates how Oxford scholar Robert Burton used the resources available to a seventeenth century academic: genres and languages, as well as academic disciplines such as medicine and rhetoric. Demonstrates how early modern practices of knowledge and persuasion can offer a model for transdisciplinary scholarship today.Trade Review“Wells eloquently makes the case for Burton’s Anatomy as a key text that helps us rethink rhetoric in a number of ways: as an arbiter of narrative form, as a vehicle for cross-disciplinary learning, even as a model for education that has powerful implications today. In a time when knowledgeable activity amidst uncertainty is more important than ever, this kind of scholarly work on rhetoric feels deeply necessary, as we need to know much more about how we got here, and what to do now.”—Daniel M. Gross,author of Uncomfortable Situations: Emotion Between Science and the Humanities“The title page of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) promises to dissect its subject ‘philosophically, medicinally, historically’—and as if that were not enough, Burton regales readers with theology, astrology, philology, and much more besides.”—D. M. Moore Choice“Wells’s book has something of the mobile quality she finds in Burton’s, in the shifts through different areas of knowledge. For readers with an interest in the history of science, her chapter on early modern medicine is of particular interest: her survey through forms of medical writing from the case histories printed in observationes to regimen manuals on health is deft and thoughtful. Likewise, she does valuable work in reflecting on Robert Burton’s own library (much of which still exists in Oxford) and how his reader’s marks indicate his ranging curiosity.”—Mary Ann Lund Isis: Journal of the History of Science SocietyTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. A Monstrous Anatomy2. Burton’s Anatomy : Genres as Species and Spaces3. The Anatomy of Melancholy and Early Modern Medicine4. Burton, Rhetoric, and the Shapes of Thought5. Translingualism: The Philologist as Language Broker6. The Anatomy of Melancholy and Transdisciplinary RhetoricNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIllustrates how Oxford scholar Robert Burton used the resources available to a seventeenth century academic: genres and languages, as well as academic disciplines such as medicine and rhetoric. Demonstrates how early modern practices of knowledge and persuasion can offer a model for transdisciplinary scholarship today. Trade Review“Wells eloquently makes the case for Burton’s Anatomy as a key text that helps us rethink rhetoric in a number of ways: as an arbiter of narrative form, as a vehicle for cross-disciplinary learning, even as a model for education that has powerful implications today. In a time when knowledgeable activity amidst uncertainty is more important than ever, this kind of scholarly work on rhetoric feels deeply necessary, as we need to know much more about how we got here, and what to do now.”—Daniel M. Gross,author of Uncomfortable Situations: Emotion Between Science and the Humanities“The title page of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) promises to dissect its subject ‘philosophically, medicinally, historically’—and as if that were not enough, Burton regales readers with theology, astrology, philology, and much more besides.”—D. M. Moore Choice“Wells’s book has something of the mobile quality she finds in Burton’s, in the shifts through different areas of knowledge. For readers with an interest in the history of science, her chapter on early modern medicine is of particular interest: her survey through forms of medical writing from the case histories printed in observationes to regimen manuals on health is deft and thoughtful. Likewise, she does valuable work in reflecting on Robert Burton’s own library (much of which still exists in Oxford) and how his reader’s marks indicate his ranging curiosity.”—Mary Ann Lund Isis: Journal of the History of Science SocietyTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. A Monstrous Anatomy2. Burton’s Anatomy : Genres as Species and Spaces3. The Anatomy of Melancholy and Early Modern Medicine4. Burton, Rhetoric, and the Shapes of Thought5. Translingualism: The Philologist as Language Broker6. The Anatomy of Melancholy and Transdisciplinary RhetoricNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisExamines the concept of the enthymeme in ancient Greek rhetoric, arguing that it is a technique of storytelling aimed at eliciting from the audience an inference about a narrative.Trade Review“James Fredal challenges traditional Aristotelian interpretations of the enthymeme as an abstract theoretical concept by examining ‘enthymizing’ as a situational activity occurring within rhetorical narratives of Greek oratory. A provocative and insightful study that compels readers to reconsider long-accepted notions of Hellenic rhetorical theory.”—Richard Leo Enos,author of Greek Rhetoric Before Aristotle“Fredal’s interdisciplinary approach is impressive, demonstrating currency in fields such as classical rhetoric, formal logic, and legal theory; his treatment of Aristotle—his argument that terms such as syllogism have a general sense rather than the technical sense they acquired later—resonates with contemporary philology.”—P. E. Ojennus Choice“The volume offers a valuable account of a key element of Greek rhetorical practice and serves as a worthy reminder of the importance of the insights of the Greeks for our own theory of narrative and vice versa. It invites us to revisit difficult and unresolved issues of the relationships that hold among narrative, rhetorical speech and logic, and how they were regarded in antiquity.”—Owen Goldin Classical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroductionPart One 3.01. Enthymeme 3.0: The Truncated Syllogism2. 3.0 and Its ProblemsPart Two 2.03. Aristotle, Sullogismos, and 2.04. 2.0 and Its ProblemsPart Three 1.05. Enthymizing in the Orators6. Oratorical Enthymizing in Context7. Enthymizing and Adversarial NarrativesPart Four Lysias and the Enthymeme8. Enthymizing in Lysias 1, On the Death of Eratosthenes9. A Many-Layered TaleConclusion Notes ReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisDiscovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Israelite documents, many of which were written by a Jewish sectarian community at Qumran living in self-exile from the priesthood of the Second Temple. This first book-length study of the rhetoric of these texts illustrates how the Essenes employed different rhetorics over time as they struggled to understand God's word and their mission to their people, who seemed to have turned away from God and his purposes. Applying methods of rhetorical analysis to six substantive textsMiq?at Ma?aseh ha-Torah, Rule of the Community, Damascus Document, Purification Rules, Temple Scroll, and Habakkuk PesherBruce McComiskey traces the Essenes' use of rhetorical strategies based on identification, dissociation, entitlement, and interpretation. Through his analysis, McComiskey uncovers a unique, fascinating story of an ancient religious community that had sought to reintegrate into Temple life but, dejected, instead established itsTrade Review“This is an intriguing study by a non-specialist in the field that will be profitable for students of the Scrolls interested in the role of rhetoric.”—Daniel M. Gurtner Religious Studies Review“Religious historians looking for examples of rhetorical case studies on ancient Jewish texts and rhetoricians looking for an introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls will find this a valuable book.”—Robert M Royalty, Jr. Rhetorica“Bruce McComiskey is the first in rhetorical studies to conduct a systematic reading of seven Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, examining how identification, distinction, persuasion, performative strategies, dissociation, and ideas about material rhetorics are present and enacted through these manuscripts. In doing so, he makes an important case for the rhetorical significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the methodological utility of a hermeneutics/rhetoric approach for reading these texts.”—Jim Ridolfo,author of Digital Samaritans: Rhetorical Delivery and Engagement in the Digital Humanities

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Book SynopsisInvestigates contemporary and historical rhetorics of rape culture within institutional, legal, cultural, and medical discourses. Examines how discourses about rape rely on strategies of containment and deny the felt experiences of victims, ultimately stalling broader claims for justice in the United States. Trade Review“What It Feels Like is an exciting contribution to rhetorical studies and women’s and gender studies, offering a theory of visceral rhetoric that provides both explanatory power for rape culture and a potential framework for feminist intervention. It addresses a timely topic in a refreshingly new way, providing critical insight into how rape culture is rhetorically constituted as well as reason to hope for change.”—Elizabeth C. Britt,author of Reimagining Advocacy: Rhetorical Education in the Legal Clinic“Not only does Larson’s work provide various avenues for researchers to continue conversations about sexual violence, but it also supplies instructions for increasing the efficacy of anti-rape advocacy. Ultimately, Larson makes a convincing case that scholars and activists alike would do well to talk about bodies and acknowledge the rhetorical power of viscerality.”—Lauren L. Buisker The Quarterly Journal of Speech

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Book SynopsisReconstructs Kenneth Burke’s drafting and revision process for A Rhetoric of Motives and The War of Words, placing Burke’s work in historical context and revealing his reliance on the concept of myth.Trade Review“To Burke scholarship, Kenneth Burke’s Weed Garden contributes an original, persuasive answer to questions about the coherence of A Rhetoric of Motives and of Burke’s whole philosophy of symbolic action. To rhetorical studies generally, it rigorously demonstrates the usefulness of genetic rhetorical criticism in understanding a specific text of rhetorical theory and masterfully illustrates the value of mythic images in interpreting rhetorical texts and contexts. For historically oriented cultural studies, it provides an extremely strong case for the major contribution rhetorical theory and analysis can make, especially when it combines scrupulous, detailed archival work with sophisticated, interdisciplinary theoretical speculation.”—Steven Mailloux,author of Rhetoric’s Pragmatism: Essays in Rhetorical Hermeneutics“Scholars interested in Burke studies will find this compelling book immensely valuable and provocative. Kyle Jensen offers a thorough reading of Burke’s archival and primary materials and his analyses will nuance and clarify understandings of rhetorical concepts such as myth.”—Jessica Enoch,author of Domestic Occupations: Spatial Rhetorics and Women's Work

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Book SynopsisThe nations of the global north find themselves in a post-secular or post-Christian period, one in which the practice, expression, and effects of religion are undergoing massive shifts. In Persuasions of God, Paul Lynch pursues a project of theorhetoric, a radical new approach to speaking about the divine. Searching for new religious forms amid the lingering influence of Christianity, Lynch turns to René Girard, the most important twentieth-century thinker on the sacred and its expression within the Christian tradition. Lynch repurposes Girard's mimetic theory to invent a post-Christian way of speaking to, for, and especially about God. Girard theorized the sacred as the nexus of violence, order, and sacralization that lies at the heart of religion. What Lynch advocates in our current moment of religious kairos is a paradoxically meek rhetoric that conscientiously refuses rivalry, actively exploits tradition through complicit invention, and boldly seeks a holiness free of exclusionary

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Book SynopsisBy the author of Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) and French Verbs Made Simple(r)—an innovative approach to learning Spanish vocabulary based on understanding the etymology of Spanish words.Table of Contents Preface Abbreviations and Symbols Simplified Gender Rule Introduction Part I: Background 1.1. Spanish as a Romance Language 1.2. "Learned" versus "Popular" Words 1.3. Latin: A Few Useful Tools Part II: Classical Vocabulary 2.1. "Learned" Latin Words 2.2. "Learned" Greek Words Part III: Popular Vocabulary: The Shape of Spanish 3.1. Addition of "Helping" e: esnob = snob 3.2. Initial f to h: higo = fig 3.3. Vowel Changes: e to ie, o to ue, etc. 3.4. Basic Consonant Changes: p/b, t/d, c/g 3.5. Other Distinctive Consonants (or Lack Thereof) Part IV: Selected Topics 4.1. Goths and Other Germans 4.2. Arabs and Muslims 4.3. Numbers and Quantities 4.4. Time 4.5. Ser and Estar 4.6. Food and Animals 4.7. Religion 4.8. The Family 4.9. Body, Spirit, and Mind 4.10. Romance (Languages) and Politics Annexes: Additional Words A. Principal Exceptions to the "Simplified Gender Rule" B. 700 Not-So-Easy Words C. Verbs Ending in -cer and Related Words D. 4,500 Relatively Easy Words Selected References

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Book SynopsisLinguistic data on color names from speakers of 116 Mesoamerican languages.Table of Contents Foreword by John R. Taylor Preface Acknowledgments Permissions Conventions Part One. Preliminaries 1. Conceptual and Material Equipment 1.1. Influential Concepts 1.2. Stimulus Materials 1.2.1. A Short History of Standards 1.3. Summary 2. Issues in Color Ethnography 2.1. Language versus Vision: An Evolutionary Debate 2.2. Crosscultural Perception 2.3. Relativism 2.4. Universalism à la Berlin and Kay 2.4.1. The 1975 Hue Sequence 2.4.2. Fuzzy Sets and Neural Response Categories 2.4.3. Semiotic Models 2.4.4. Surveys and Reformulation 2.5. A Dynamic Model 2.6. World Overview 2.7. Summary 3. Descriptive Method 3.1. Equipment 3.2. Elicitation 3.3. Display of Individual Data 3.3.1. Naming Ranges and Qualifier Distributions 3.3.2. Foci 3.3.3. Mappings 3.4. Analysis of Individual Data 3.4.1. Naming Ranges and Mappings 3.4.2. Correspondence among Mappings 3.4.3. Qualifiers and Mappings 3.4.4. Complementation of Qualifiers 3.5. Summary 4. Axioms 4.1. Perceptual Axioms 4.1.1. Evidence 4.1.1.1. Discrimination Distance 4.1.1.2. The Disadvantage of Short-Wavelength Cones 4.1.1.3. Other Evidence 4.2. Cognitive Axioms 4.3. Motivation 4.4. Engagement of Axioms 4.5. Using the Axioms 4.5.1. Tzeltal Hue Categories 4.5.2. A Model of Variation in Tzeltal Color Categorization 4.5.3. Issues of Theory 4.6. Summary Part Two. Viewpoint and Category Change: A Continuous Typology of Relations 5. Coextensive Semantic Ranges 5.1. Characteristics of Coextension 5.1.1. Coextension in the Warm Category 5.1.2. Coextension in the Cool Category 5.1.3. Coextension in Two Environments 5.2. Coextension in Relation to Other Semantic Types 5.3. Semantic Evolution in Two Environments 5.4. Summary 6. Vantages 6.1. The Dominant-Recessive Pattern of Coextension 6.1.1. Variation on a Continuum 6.1.2. The Null Hypothesis 6.1.3. Alternative Explanations 6.2. Categorization as Spatiotemporal Analogy 6.2.1. Vantages and Coordinates 6.2.2. Relativity of Coordinates 6.2.3. Formalisms 6.2.3.1. Different Sizes of Dominant and Recessive Ranges 6.2.3.2. Increase of the Size Differential 6.2.3.3. Near Synonymy, Coextension, and Inclusion 6.2.3.4. Complementation 6.2.4. Pragmatics 6.2.5. Summation 6.3. Descriptions of Coextension 6.3.1. Early Coextension 6.3.2. Late Coextension 6.3.3. Dominant and Recessive Qualifiers 6.3.4. Lexical Borrowing 6.3.5. Triple Coextension 6.3.6. Balanced Coextension 6.3.7. Systems Not in Table 6.1 6.3.8. Foci of the Warm Category 6.4. Implications of Vantage Theory 6.4.1. Analogy on the Level of Coordinates 6.4.2. Phylogeny 6.4.3. Human versus Animal Categorization 6.4.4. Innateness 6.4.5. Embodiment 6.4.6. A Vantage Is Always Part of a Category 6.4.7. Coordinates versus Features 6.4.8. Primary Motivation versus Function 6.4.9. Alternative Accounts of Color Categorization 6.4.10. Etic and Emic 6.4.11. Point of View and Fuzziness 6.4.12. Boundaries 6.4.13. Contextualization and Connotation 6.4.14. Category Change 6.4.15. Judgments of Similarity and Difference within Categories 6.4.16. Judgments of Asymmetry within Categories 6.4.17. Reference Point Reasoning 6.4.18. Categorical Perception versus Weber's Law 6.4.19. Relativity and Universality 6.4.20. Is the Space-Time Analogy Alive or Dead? 6.4.21. Speed and Productivity 6.4.22. Is It Possible to Categorize without Constructing a Vantage? 6.5. Summary 7. Category Division 7.1. Pulling Apart the Warm Category 7.1.1. Superordination in Reference to Yellow 7.1.2. Superordination in Reference to Red 7.1.3. Inclusion to Complementation 7.1.4. Polarized Inclusion 7.1.5. Notions of Categorization 7.2. Mirror Images of the Dark-Cool Category 7.2.1. Categories of Elemental Color 7.2.2. Categories of Brightness 7.3. The Elusive Light-Warm Category 7.4. Summary Part Three. Further Dynamics, Reflectivity, and Complex Categorization 8. Skewing and Darkening 8.1. Skewing 8.1.1. Degree of Skewing 8.1.2. Direction of Skewing 8.2. Quantification 8.2.1. Outline of Major Numbers 8.2.2. Descriptions and Analyses 8.2.2.1. Statistics on the Direction of Skewing 8.2.2.2. Statistics on the Degree of Skewing 8.2,2.3. Statistics on Darkening 8.2.2.4. Statistics on the Dominant-Recessive Pattern 8.2.2.5. Statistics on Transference 8.2.2.6. Miscellaneous Statistics 8.2.3. Synopsis 8.3. Darkening 8.4. Qualifiers and Skewing 8.5. Aggregates of Foci in Specific Languages 8.6. Transference versus Areal Diffusion 8.7 Summary 9. Submerged Versus Reflective Categorization 9.1. Single Foci 9.2. Dual Foci 9.3. Triple Foci 9.4. Overviews of Viewpoints 9.4.1. Kinds of Thinking 9.4.2. In Common Terms 9.4.3. In Formal Terms 9.5. Distinguishing Closely versus Customarily Taking an Overview 9.6. Summary 10. Crossover 10.1. Crossover and Coextension 10.2. Crossover and Inclusion 10.3. An Areal Study 10.4. Qualifier Coextension 10.5. Brightness Coextension 10.6. Summary 11. Transference Versus Diffusion: Mesoamerica Compared With the World 11.1. The Cool Category in Global Perspective 11.2. Results of Skewing 11.3. Conditions That Affect Skewing 11.3.1. Crossover 11.3.2. Brightness Categories Focused in Blue 11.3.3. Brightness Categories Focused in Yellow 11.3.4. Yellow-with-Green Hue Categories 11.3.5. Coextensive Naming 11.3.6. Incipient Transference 11.4. Transference in State Societies 11.5. Summary Part Four. Conclusion 12. Color and Categorization 12.1. Three Levels of Analysis 12.1.1. Raw Observations 12.1.2. A Model of Color Categorization 12.1.2.1. Axioms and Dynamics 12.1.2.2. Points of View and Frames of Reference 12.1.2.3. Simplex and Complex Categorization 12.1.2.4. Flip-Flop 12.1.3. A Theory of Categorization Appendix I. Inventory of Data, Collaborators, Languages, and Locations Appendix II. Linguistic Relations Appendix III. Technical Information Appendix IV. A Cognitive Ceiling of Eleven Basic Color Terms Appendix V. North and South of Mesoamerica Appendix VI. Data Organization Methods Appendix VII. Inventory of Observations Appendix VIII. Formulae Notes Glossary Bibliography Name Index Language Index Subject Index

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