Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations, Diane Davis: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. 214 pages. $24.95 paperback.

Jared Colton

doi:10.1080/07350198.2012.630968

Rhetoric Review Jan 2012

Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations, Diane Davis: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. 214 pages. $24.95 paperback.

Jared Colton

Abstract

Two paragraphs into Diane Davis's most recent undertaking and the attentive reader will recognize a work that is grand in scope. Davis's aim “to expose an ordinary rhetoricity—an affectability or persuadability—[as] the condition for symbolic action” is calling for no less than an acceptance of a new rhetorical philosophy and theory of a rhetoric that affects (and effects) all communication practices—a new philosophy that in turn demands an ethical paradigm shift in rhetoric studies (2). Her critique reveals the less-than-static foundations of the agent in contemporary rhetorical theories and, instead or alongside with, offers an “ecstatic” theory of “response-ability” that resituates the character of the rhetorical agent away from the concept of the self-interested individual, the free-willing agent. Such critiques require in-depth ontological and epistemological considerations, and Davis is up to the task.

Journal: Rhetoric Review
Published: 2012-01-01
DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2012.630968
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism
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Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations, Diane Davis: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. 214 pages. $24.95 paperback.

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