Book Review| September 01 2016 A Century of Communication Studies: The Unfinished Conversation A Century of Communication Studies: The Unfinished Conversation. Edited by Pat J. Gehrke, William M. Keith. New York: Routledge, 2015; pp. 308. $49.95 paper. Sara C. VanderHaagen Sara C. VanderHaagen University of Nevada, Las Vegas Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2016) 19 (3): 505–508. https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.3.0505 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Sara C. VanderHaagen; A Century of Communication Studies: The Unfinished Conversation. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 September 2016; 19 (3): 505–508. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.3.0505 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2016 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.2016 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

ABSTRACT This article mines the work of philosopher Paul Ricoeur in order to construct a critical framework for the rhetorical analysis of public memory. Through a reading of Ricoeur's concept of “threefold mimesis,” I develop the idea of the “agential spiral.” The “spiral” frames a repetitive yet progressive process in which a series of agents or groups of agents both interpret and act in response to the past. When linked together, these moments of agency form a spiral that metaphorizes the process of creating and deploying public memories across time. I argue that the concept of the agential spiral enables scholars to focus not only on the ways that memories unite human agents synchronically but also on how those memories structure a relationship among agents across time through the performance and representation of agency. I situate this argument within scholarship on rhetorical studies and public memory.