Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Speaking Truth to Power: Recovering a Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia

Frey, Renea C.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5148-1420
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437616990

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, English.
This dissertation examines the history, genealogy, and application of parrhesia, the rhetorical strategy of speaking truth to power that disrupts the status quo and works to realign power dynamics. Parrhesia is invoked when rhetors act out in ways that are potentially dangerous to their own safety but do so in service of deeply held truth values that may be more important to articulate than the rhetor’s own life or safety. My dissertation provides a framework to understand parrhesiastic acts and contextualize them within a larger social network where such acts serve to create disruptions and fissures within the field of conventional social practice. Beginning with the origins of parrhesia—in classical rhetoric with democracy in 4th century BCE Athens—this work traces the development of parrhesia as a political, philosophical, and religious practice over the next 800 years by examining primary sources (e.g. extant speeches, letters, biblical texts, and classic rhetoric manuals) as well as secondary scholarship and current cross-disciplinary research. Additionally, this dissertation questions how parrhesia is remediated across oral, print, and digital mediums and how distribution and circulation are affected by examining specific moments of transition in methods of delivery, such as the move from oral culture to print in the nineteenth century and the affordances of contemporary digital technologies. To do this I will discuss two extended examples of parrhesia-in-action: the nineteenth century women’s right activist Matilda Gage and the more recent actions of Edward Snowden. Why recover parrhesia? Because parrhesia is an important strategy for marginalized and otherwise silenced groups who must often transgress social boundaries in order to speak out at all. This rhetorical theory provides a framework to understand, analyze, and name parrhesiastic acts that disrupt conventional power structures to enact social change and to trace the networked effects of these acts of resistance.
James Porter (Committee Chair)
214 p.
Rhetoric
parrhesia; free speech; democracy; speaking truth to power; Classical rhetoric; Athenian democracy; Roman rhetoric; resistance; rhetorical theory; power; Matilda Gage; Edward Snowden; surveillance; resistance networks

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Frey, R. C. (2015). Speaking Truth to Power: Recovering a Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437616990

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Frey, Renea . Speaking Truth to Power: Recovering a Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia. 2015. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437616990.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Frey, Renea . "Speaking Truth to Power: Recovering a Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1437616990

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1437616990
2,549
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.