Defining Five Rhetorical Terms
Amber Thomas | Fall 2021
Defining Five Rhetorical Terms
Amber Thomas | Fall 2021
ENCOMIUM
An encomium, like "Encomium of Helen," is extensive and exhaustive praise for a person, place, or thing. Often times encomia include a brief history of the subject, highlight their strengths, and provide evidence in support of their praise. Most importantly, encomia must be carefully designed with their audience in mind (189-190).
The picture to the right is of the Enchanted Garden at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Pictured below is a bust of Edgar Allan Poe which resides at the back of the garden and is entitled "The Poe Shrine." Although the museum and the Poe Foundation, Inc. memorialize Poe, the shrine presents an intriguing example of encomium. Obviously the shrine and bust are beautiful artworks dedicated to Poe's memory in a praiseworthy light. The bust specifically, though, creates more personal praise of Poe by allowing visitors to be in such close proximity to the writer and look eye-to-eye with him. Emotions, in particular, are known to "alter in accordance with the spatial and temporal proximity" (176). With Poe's bust giving an especially ominous look, it may strike fear into his visitors and allow Poe to "come to life for the audience" (177). Thus, the Poe Shrine is an interactive and complex example of encomium.
AMPLIFICATION
Amplification is defined in rhetorical contexts as the ability to say a great deal about very little (349).
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama is the first exhibit to memorialize the enslaved, lynched, and terrorized African Americans. The site includes 800 hanging monuments to symbolize the weight of racial terror felt by the Black community. In short, the exhibit is meant to be a visual representation of centuries of pain. Using amplification, the EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) uses giant 3D monuments to represent a seemingly abstract idea, a feeling. This is not to say that the historical pain from enslavement, lynchings, and Jim Crow is small - it is anything but small. However, the concept of this pain is amplified via the exhibit. Furthermore, the act of looking up to identify the memorialized lynching victims mimics the act of looking up at the victims at the scene of their murder. Thus, creating an amplified sense of overwhelming and awe that words alone cannot communicate. The exhibit amplifies its invention in order to amplify the audience's emotional response. Amplification is historically used in rhetoric to verbally be big and loud, but this serves as an example of amplification in visual rhetoric.
ENTHYMEME
An enthymeme contains commonplaces and logical proofs that go straight to the argument (125). Silva Rhetoricæ adds that an enthymeme usually occurs as a conclusion coupled by reasoning where the premise is implied.
At the National Museum of the Marine Corps, examples of enthymemes can be found around every corner. However, a noteworthy example of enthymeme we saw is pictured to the right entitled "A Nation's Call" by sculptor Kris Kuksi. As you can see, the sculpture highlights a Marine surrounded by other symbols associated with the history of the Marine Corps. Specifically, I can identify the iconic image of Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima. The sculpture is clearly arguing how being a marine is being a part of a larger whole. What makes this example an enthymeme is that I, as an audience member, understand the argument without an explicit premise. The implied premise here is that Marines have a long history – a history I do not know – that makes the Marine Corps large and honorable. Despite my lack of knowledge, I still understand the sculpture's main argument. If I were a part of the intended audience who has more knowledge of Marine Corps history, the significance of the argument would be more apparent. But, it would not change the argument.
ARRANGEMENT
Arrangement is the selection and ordering of parts in a given discourse (222). Ancient rhetoricians also found that exordiums, or the beginning of a discourse, can build ethos and give context to the audience so they are prepared for the rest of the argument (224).
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is arranged in chronological order. Although this may seem like an obvious design choice, the chronological arrangement of the museum displays allows the audience to more easily digest the immense amount of information displayed.
To the left is an image from the Civil War in 1863, and below is an image of the recreated Greensboro lunch counter in which there was a sit-in protest in 1960. Although these two events' contexts are very different, it is important to understand the horrific history of enslaved African Americans in order to understand why students held a sit-in at the counter nearly 100 years later. In other words, the chronological arrangement of the museum's displays works to form the premises to the argument for continued civil rights work. Without the full history of the objectification of African Americans, the historical trauma across generations and the significance of continued efforts towards social justice may not be apparent to the audience. In fact, Ancient Rhetor Cicero believed a controversial case, like the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter, requires an introduction to build ethos (226).
KAIROS
Kairos is the right time, opportunity, space, or season for a specific discourse (38). Thus, kairos plays a major role in how a rhetor defines their rhetorical situation.
As pictured, on October 3rd, 2021, a billboard-sized banner reads "In America Remember" with the number 700,327 and the website SuzanneFirstenberg.com at the bottom. All around the banner are little white utility flags representing the big number on the banner. Without further research and given the kairos of the rhetorical situation, this installation is clearly a memorial for those who have passed from COVID. It follows that the number and flags represent individuals who have passed. The flags, in particular, create a sea of white, as far as the eye could see, with some names handwritten on them. Although the installation does not explicitly use the word "memorial" or "COVID-19," the display was clearly designed with kairos in mind as we understood exactly what everything represented. If the same display was up in February 2020, people would have no idea what it meant. The timing part of kairos for this display was imperative to its rhetorical appeal to audiences like us.
Outside of the time aspect of the rhetorical situation, playing a major role in the exhibit's persuasiveness is the location. As you can see in the image, the exhibit resides next to the Washington Monument – a popular tourist attraction – and is in a popular part of DC for locals to walk through. Meaning, it is bound to receive attention simply from foot traffic. The installation in the heart of our nation, Washington DC, adds another layer of significance.
Unlike chronos, which the Greeks used in reference to linear time, kairos is used to describe an all-encompassing rhetorical situation in which an argument works best (38). Only now and here could the installation be a successful argument for remembering those lost to COVID.
