Thomas B. Farrell

Accidental rhetoric: The root metaphors of three mile Island

Even though the communication practices at Three Mile Island confounded advocates and critics alike, the root assumptions of this discourse have remained unexamined. This essay theorizes, however, that much of contemporary communication tends to withhold its presuppositions from ready critical access. Accordingly, it may remain for a rhetorical crisis to disclose for us the limits of our most ordinary activities. Our contention is that Three Mile Island presented such a crisis. In actuality, if not intent, the inadequacies of accidental rhetoric at Three Mile Island point to a failure larger than the technical breakdown of 1979: the failure of technical reason itself to offer communication practices capable of mastering the problems of our age. The essay begins by examining three inclusive world views which have gradually advanced the power of technical reason over social concerns in general and nuclear power in particular. Following a detailed reconstruction of the discourse at Three Mile Island, the ess...

Language‐action: A paradigm for communication

(1976). Language‐action: A paradigm for communication. Quarterly Journal of Speech: Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 333-349.

Media Rhetoric as Social Drama: The Winter Olympics of 1984.

The unprecedented importance of commercial media in both the broadcasting and the sponsorship of the Olympic games has had critical implications for their significance as global events. This appraisal of the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo argues that it was the plurality of tensions among the commodified market economy and more traditional heroic norms of excellence that engendered “social dramas” in the presentation of Olympic games. In this case study, the concept of spectacle is approached through Victor Turners narrative phases of social drama in order to appreciate the moments of rhetorical urgency and reflective possibility within the games.

Scrapbooks as cultural texts: An American art of memory

The largely invisible but pervasive American cultural practice of scrapbook keeping is examined in this essay. Through a synthesis of ethnographic and rhetorical methods, the cultural genre of scrapbook is defined and explored. Interview data from 55 informants are explored to disclose the meaning of scrapbooks as an artifact of life narration for many youthful middle‐class Americans. Phases of selection, organizing, and sharing indicate that the scrapbook is a text that needs to be captioned and performed for both the self and ‘other’ as audiences. In an era often characterized by loss of belonging and cultural fragmentation, this is an American art of memory.

Social Knowledge II.

In this reconsideration of social knowledge, an attempt is made to resolve ambiguities related to the original project. Three regions of dispute fostered by the initial essay are examined and explained: first, the definition of social knowledge; second, the issue of form; third, the problem of normative impact.

Rhetorical resemblance: Paradoxes of a practical art

This essay uncovers in the classical tradition an underlying paradox that helps to explain contemporary confusions about rhetorics mimetic status. Aristotle situated rhetoric in a conflicted relationship—between rhetoric as an ethical‐political practice and poetic. The aesthetic possibility of rhetoric is thus liberated and limited by constraints imposed by Aristotles most perfected poetic form, tragedy.

Political conventions as legitimation ritual

The major parties faced special problems in 1976 which they attempted to overcome in part through the ritual forms of their national conventions. The Democrats played upon the theme of unity, the Republicans upon the theme of conflict, as each sought legitimation of the party and its chosen leader.

Sizing Things Up: Colloquial Reflection as Practical Wisdom

This essay reintroduces Rhetoric as the principle art for giving emphasis and importance to contested matters; in other words, for making things matter. In a speculative reading of the Aristotelian rhetorical tradition, Aristotles interpretations of magnitude, contengency and practical wisdom are critically examined from both an aesthetic and an ethical-political point of view. The concluding discussion attempts to apply these same concepts to a growing dilemma in the present age. The dilemma is that monumental changes in scale have all but eroded the prospects for engaged encounters with contemporary contingency. It remains the challenge of rhetorical practice to reframe actions and events so that they and we may hold some hope for an engaged civic life.

Validity and Rationality: The Rhetorical Constituents of Argumentative Form.

This essay reconsiders validity as the “soundness” of a rhetorical argument. Characteristics of rhetorical argument which contribute to this reconsideration are examined: the complicity of an audie...

Donald Cushman: Larger Than Life.

In this article, a number of Don Cushmans former (but also current) students have set down some anecdotes and experiences which capture part of his superb spirit as a teacher.