Description
Book SynopsisInviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is an authoritative reference work designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory of invitational rhetoric, developed twenty-five years ago by Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin. This theory challenges the conventional conception of rhetoric as persuasion and defines rhetoric as an invitation to understanding as a means to create a relationship rooted in equality, immanent value, and self-determination. Rather than celebrating argumentation, division, and winning, invitational rhetoric encourages rhetors to listen across differences, to engage in dialogue, and to try to understand positions different from their own.
Organized into the three categories of foundations, extensions, and applications, Inviting Understanding is a compilation of published articles and new essays that explore and expand the theory. The book provides readers with access to a wide range of resources about this revolutionary theory in areas such as community organizing, social justice activism, social media, film, graffiti, institutional and team decision making, communication and composition pedagogy, and interview protocols.
Current cultural, social, and political divisions in the United States and across the world suggest that the principles and practices of invitational rhetoric are sorely needed, and a volume that demonstrates its application in various contexts may inspire readers to put it into practice in the contexts in which they work and live.
Trade ReviewFoss (Univ. of Denver) and Griffin (Colorado State Univ.) are the principal developers of the invitational rhetoric paradigm. This publication marks the 25th anniversary of Foss and Griffin's original article on this theory ("Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for an Invitational Rhetoric," Communication Monographs, 1995), making this extensive showcase of the scope and impact of their work quite fitting. Presented under three headings—"Foundations," "Extensions," "Applications"—essays cover the foundations of invitational rhetoric, offer extensions of the theory, and apply the concepts to a variety of artifacts. In a particularly interesting essay, Alina Haliliuc studies the 2012 Romanian film Beyond the Hills, arguing that the movie functions as an invitational rhetorical "offering" in that it provides a brave perspective about highly controversial issues. Foss and Griffin conclude by provoking inquiry into the growth of the theory by looking at ways in which invitational rhetoric can inform pedagogy, is affected by technology, can enact social change, and can inform research methods. No other books on this theory provide the breadth and expertise this one does. This is a must-have for scholars and an excellent supplemental text for the classroom. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.
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A remarkable turn in the rhetorical tradition, the theory of invitational rhetoric invites us to reimagine rhetoric as a form of genuine dialogue. Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is a great resource for anyone wanting to explore this provocative idea. -- Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado at Boulder
Given the divisive world in which we currently live, any approach to discourse that privileges understanding and accepting the social other is to be commended. This volume adroitly combines previously published scholarship with new material that deepens the theoretical frame for the ‘invitation to understand’ as well as offers a broader array of work that illustrates the possibilities for engaging in discourse. -- Raymie E. McKerrow, Ohio University
This book is both a comprehensive and expansive examination of previously and newly published works on one of the communication discipline’s most important theoretical contributions. Invitational rhetoric has certainly made its mark in the field, and this volume adds extensively to our understanding of invitational and feminist theories of communication and rhetoric. -- Stacey Sowards, University of Texas at Austin
As an advocate for and practitioner of invitational rhetoric for decades, I am deeply indebted to Foss and Griffin’s work. Now comes this comprehensive new resource, Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric—and it could not appear at a more propitious time, as teachers everywhere are looking for ways to move beyond the fragmentation and division and attack culture we are living through. -- Andrea Lunsford, Stanford University
How lucky are we to research, write, and speak during the time of Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin, whose concept of invitational rhetoric continues to transform the long-established fields of rhetoric, communication, and composition studies. Ever since their landmark 1995 publication on this topic, my students and I have benefited from their brilliant insights; their generative scholarship; and their steady hope for a more equitable, productive rhetorical future. -- Cheryl Glenn, Pennsylvannia State University
For the past quarter century, Foss and Griffin’s theory of invitational rhetoric has played an instrumental role in fostering dialogue regarding the strengths and limits of the dominant adversarial communication paradigm. As one who shares their commitment to this critical area of inquiry, I welcome publication of Inviting Understanding. -- Josina M. Makau, California State University, Monterey Bay
Table of ContentsPart I. Foundations
1 The Womanization of Rhetoric
Sally Miller Gearhart
2 Proposal for a Feminist Rhetoric
Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin
3 Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for an Invitational Rhetoric
Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin
4 Beyond Traditional Conceptualizations of Rhetoric: Invitational Rhetoric and a Move toward Civility
Jennifer E. Bone, Cindy L. Griffin, and T. M. Linda Scholz
5 The Metatheoretical Foundations of Invitational Rhetoric: Axiological, Epistemological, and Ontological Explorations
Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin
Part II. Extensions
6 Fusing Horizons: Standpoint Hermeneutics and Invitational Rhetoric
Kathleen J. Ryan and Elizabeth J. Natalle
7 Telling the Story, Hearing the Story: Narrative Co-Construction and Crisis Research
Karen Taylor, Rita Durant, and David Boje
8 Planting Seeds of Change: Ella Baker’s Radical Rhetoric
Marilyn DeLaure Bordwell
9 Rhetorics of Invitation and Refusal in Terry Tempest Williams’s The Open Space of Democracy
Jill Swiencicki
10 Invention for the Invitational Rhetor: Allen Ginsberg’s “Wichita Vortex Sutra”
Stephen M. Llano
11 Challenges to the Enactment of Invitational Rhetoric in the Age of Mobile Communication Technologies
Sonja K. Foss and Jeanine Warisse Turner
Part III. Applications
12 Love as a Strategy for Community and Social Justice Organizing: Invitational Rhetoric in Murfreesboro Loves
Roberta Chevrette and Joshua Hendricks
13 Practicing Invitational Rhetoric: East Central Ministries’ Approach to Community Development
Sarah De Los Santos Upton
14 Discussions on Kneeling During the National Anthem: An Analysis of High School Football Players Employing Invitational Rhetoric
Kristen A. Hungerford
15 An Invitation to Rhetoric: A Generative Dialogue on Performance, Possibility, and Feminist Potentialities in Invitational Rhetoric
Bryant Keith Alexander and Michele Hammers
16 Understanding Affectively: Beyond the Hills as Cinematic Invitational Rhetoric
Alina Haliliuc
17 Participatory Graffiti as Invitational Rhetoric: The Case of O Machismo
Benjamin R. Bates
18 Invitational Rhetoric as a Springboard to Using Dialogue across the Curriculum
Patricia Hawk and Rachel Pokora
19 Creating an Invitational Classroom Environment: Lessons Lived and Learned
Donna Marie Nudd
20 Disrupting Disruption: Invitational Pedagogy as a Response to Student Resistance
A. Abby Knoblauch
21 An Invitation to Reason: The Process of Discovery Essay
Kathleen M. Hunzer
22 Considering the Alternative in Composition Pedagogy: Teaching Invitational Rhetoric with Lynda Barry’s What It Is
Susan Kirtley
Part IV. Expanding the Invitation
23 The Theory of Invitational Rhetoric: Anticipating Future Scholarship
Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin
24 Compendium of Publications Related to Invitational Rhetoric
Sonja K. Foss, Cindy L. Griffin, and Andrew Gilmore
