Eminent rhetoric : language, gender, and cultural tropes /

Fay's important update of the discipline of rhetoric distinguishes and analyzes six new tropes in current discourse. In five short chapters this book argues that rhetoric as purposeful manipulation of language to gain political ends is being used as an unacknowledged weapon targeting women. The author focuses on discourse that knowingly does not "disclose its designs" and uses tropes that contribute to the dissembling of "the rhetor's actual goal." The purpose is "to point out recognizable patterns in word usage so that paying attention can be easier" for those attempting to read closely. In the arenas of pedagogy, media, literature, and intellectual debate about feminism the author examines the rhetoric of La Baron Russell Briggs, Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Chef Jeff Smith, McNeil/Lehrer, Francis Fukuyama, Catherine MacKinnon, Susan Faludi, and Camille Paglia to demonstrate when rhetoric does and does not utilize these tropes. To question the "transmission of ideology" in devious rhetoric, this text suggests reading with scrutiny in order to produce meaning rather than merely to perceive meaning. Recommended for classes in communication, advanced composition, journalism, and advanced women's studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. T. B. Dykeman; Fairfield University