Disruption, Spectacle, and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Technical Communication — Rhetoric & Composition

Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 2016

Disruption, Spectacle, and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Technical Communication

Chelsea Redeker Milbourne California Polytechnic State University

Abstract

This article examines how 18th-century technical communicators used spectacular science displays to critique audiences’ existing knowledge and advocate for alternative perspectives and technical practices. In addition to using disruptive rhetorical strategies such as amplification and contrary opposition, historical technical communicators heightened the wonder of their displays by disrupting audience expectations for the extended material and social scenes, including the objects, spaces, bodies, and cultural performances like gender that surrounded the demonstrations.

Journal: Technical Communication Quarterly
Published: 2016-04-02
DOI: 10.1080/10572252.2016.1148200
Open Access: Closed
Topics: technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

Fiss (2026)

“No Mining Engineer Could Be a Lady”: A Historical Case Study of Drag and Humor…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Bastian et al. (2023)

Toward Disruptive Agency

College Composition and Communication
Fiss (2021)

Ridicule, Technical Communication, and Nineteenth-Century Women Performing Coll…

Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (5)

Tonn (2011)

“From the Eye to the Soul”: Industrial Labor's Mary Harris “Mother” Jones and t…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Seigel (2009)

Instructions for Systemic Change

College Composition and Communication
Koerber (2006)

Rhetorical Agency, Resistance, and the Disciplinary Rhetorics of Breastfeeding

Technical Communication Quarterly
Herndl (2004)

Introduction to the Special Issue

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Halloran (2001)

Text and experience in a historical pageant: Toward a rhetoric of spectacle

Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Also cites 12 works outside this index ↓

10.1080/10570310209374724

↗
Burke K. (1984)

Attitudes toward history

↗
10.1080/07393180216559

↗
10.1215/9780822393818

↗
10.1080/00335630902842079

↗
10.1017/CBO9781139061278

↗
10.4324/9780203166383

↗
10.1080/10510976809362932

↗
10.1086/421123

↗
Latour B. (2005)

Reassembling the social

↗
10.7208/chicago/9780226750224.001.0001

↗
10.1177/007327539703500201

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network →