Philosophy & Rhetoric May 2017

The Suddener World: Photography and Ineffable Rhetoric

Chris Ingraham North Carolina State University

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe spread of mobile technologies and social media have contributed to making snapshot photography an ordinary part of everyday life. As snapshots become more omnipresent, asking why we take so many photos becomes less exigent than asking what might stop us from doing so. Drawing on insights from affect theory, new materialism, and studies of visual rhetoric, this article argues that deterrents to snapping pictures arise not only from the range of human rhetorics or “laws” that influence our actions or inactions, but also from a dynamic tangle of extrahuman factors, ineffable though this influence may be. Speculating about the implications of these extrahuman deterrents for how we understand rhetoric, I suggest that the ineffable enchantment of certain encounters exhibits a worldly rhetoricity in itself, one that conditions the possibility of—and sometimes prevents—the anthropogenic symbolic actions we are more accustomed to recognizing as rhetorical.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2017-05-22
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.50.2.0129
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality social media affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. McNely (2019)
    Lures, Slimes, Time: Viscosity and the Nearness of Distance
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

Cites in this index (1)

  1. Reeves (2013)
    Suspended Identification:
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bennett, Jane. 2004. “The Force of Things: Steps Toward an Ecology of Matter.” Political Theory 32 (3): 347–72.
     ↗
  2. Burke, Kenneth. 1966. Language as Symbolic Action. Berkeley: University of California Press.
     ↗
  3. Davis, Diane. 2010. Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations. Pittsburgh, PA: University of P…
     ↗
  4. Finnegan, Cara A. 2001. “The Naturalistic Enthymeme and Visual Argument: Photographic Representation in the ‘…
     ↗
  5. Finnegan, Cara A., and Jiyeon Kang. 2004. “‘Sighting’ the Public: Iconoclasm and Public Sphere Theory.” Quart…
     ↗
  6. Freedberg, David. 1989. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: Universi…
     ↗
  7. Gell, Alfred. 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
     ↗
  8. Gesler, Wilbert M., and Margaret Pierce. 2000. “Hindu Varanasi.” Geographical Review 90 (2): 222–37.
     ↗
  9. Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. 2004. Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Uni…
     ↗
  10. Khan, Gulshan. 2009. “Agency, Nature and Emergent Properties: An Interview with Jane Bennett.” Contemporary P…
     ↗
  11. Kjeldsen, Jens. 2015. “The Rhetoric of Thick Representation: How Pictures Render the Importance and Strength …
     ↗
  12. Massumi, Brian. 2011. Semblence and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts. Cambridge: MIT Press.
     ↗
  13. McKeon, Richard. 1968. “Character and the Arts and Disciplines.” Ethics 78 (2): 109–23.
     ↗
  14. Mitchell, W. J. T. 2005. What Do Pictures Want: The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago…
     ↗
  15. Rickert, Thomas. 2013. Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunements of Rhetorical Being. Pittsburgh, PA: University of P…
     ↗
  16. Shaw, Philip. 2006. The Sublime. London: Routledge.
     ↗
  17. Stormer, Nathan. 2004. “Addressing the Sublime: Space, Mass Representation and the Unpresentable.” Critical S…
     ↗
  18. Stormer, Nathan. 2015. “Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 101 (1): …
     ↗
  19. Wolff, Janet. 2012. “After Cultural Theory: The Power of Images, the Lure of Immediacy.” Journal of Visual Cu…
     ↗
  20. Worth, Sol. 1981. “Pictures Can't Say Ain't.” In Studying Visual Communication, ed. Larry Gross, 162–84. Phil…
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric Sep 2024
    Rhetoric Is Dead? The Fear of Stasis Behind Post-Truth Rhetoric ↗
    Eric S. Jenkins
    multimodality social media race and writing affect and writing
  2. Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2018
    Where Do We Go from Here? Toward a Critical Race English Education ↗
    Lamar L. Johnson
    qualitative research multimodality social media race and writing multilingual writers affect and writing
  3. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2026
    An Acceptance Analysis of Firms’ Posts on Sina Weibo to Build Credibility ↗
    Chenghui Wu
    multimodality social media
  4. Literacy in Composition Studies Feb 2026
    The Schooling of Gestural Listening ↗
    Feibush, Laura
    multimodality disability studies place and space affect and writing
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2026
    “Not a Detour from Rigor” ↗
    Krysten Stein; Kishonna Gray
    multimodality multilingual writers affect and writing