Advances in the History of Rhetoric Apr 2015

From Fish Soup to Fish Tank: Rhetoric, Politics, and Dialectic in the Polish Revolution of 1989

Cezar M. Ornatowski San Diego State University

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article offers a rhetorical account of the “leap into politics” by the Polish Communist authorities that led to the political transition of 1989. In contrast to accounts of the transition focused on “dialogue” between the authorities and the opposition, this article examines the move toward dialogue from a dramatistic and dialectical perspective—that is, in terms of the shifting principles of motivation, changing rhetorical identities of the key actors, and associated transformations of terms that characterized the transition from a monocentric ideal of the state to a “political” one.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2015-04-13
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2015.1010863
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Topics
rhetorical criticism
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