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Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy

Blankenship, Lisa
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1374430177

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, English.
This project explores the concept of empathy as a rhetorical stance and strategy of engaging across marked social differences. It contributes to Krista Ratcliffe’s call for scholars in rhetoric and composition studies to "map more theoretical terrain and provide more pragmatic tactics for peaceful, cross-cultural negotiation and coalition building" (Rhetorical Listening 72). I define rhetorical empathy as a trope characterized by narrative and emotional appeals and as a topos or attitude interlocutors adopt to engage with socially marked difference, building on Susan Miller’s conception of rhetoric as emotion-based trust (Trust in Texts). This dissertation also addresses a gap in studies on empathy within cognitive science and psychology that typically focus on bodily responses to attempt to measure someone’s level of empathetic engagement within staged scenarios. Such studies often do not take into account the social position of research subjects or the role of motivations in empathetic responses. My research methodology for this project involves an analysis of three rhetorical exchanges involving marked social difference: in Chapter Three I focus on class in two late-nineteenth labor rights speeches of Jane Addams; Chapter Four centers on the intersection of sexuality/gender and religion in the rhetoric of two contemporary gay rights activists; and in Chapter Five I focus on constructions of race in the online, multimodal response of a minority student group to a racist Twitter incident at a midwestern U.S. university. I identify the following recurring and recursive moves as characteristic of rhetorical strategies based on empathy: • Appealing to the personal within discourse systems: experience and emotions • Considering motives behind speech acts and actions • Confronting difference and injustice • Situating a rhetorical exchange as part of an ongoing process of mutual understanding and (ex)change (including vulnerability and self-critique on the part of the rhetor) Rhetorical empathy functions as a way of forming connections and shifting power dynamics among interlocutors within a complex web of rhetorical exchange. By combining rhetoric and empathy, I highlight aspects of each: rhetoric as a strategic use of symbol systems using various modes of communication—language, still and moving images, and sound—and, after Wispe ("Distinction" 318), empathy as involving both a volitional, deliberate attempt to understand an Other and the emotional elements involved in such attempts.
Kate Ronald, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Cindy Lewiecki-Wilson, Dr. (Committee Member)
LuMing Mao, Dr. (Committee Member)
Heidi McKee, Dr. (Committee Member)
David Cowan, Dr. (Committee Member)
135 p.
Communication; Composition; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Rhetoric; Sociolinguistics
rhetorical empathy; communication across difference; ethics; civil discourse; rhetorical theory; gay rights and fundamentalist discourse; labor rhetoric; multimodal rhetoric; public sphere rhetoric; critical race theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Blankenship, L. (2013). Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1374430177

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Blankenship, Lisa. Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy. 2013. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1374430177.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Blankenship, Lisa. "Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1374430177

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1374430177
822
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.