{"id":40,"date":"2012-09-12T13:12:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T17:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/?page_id=40"},"modified":"2012-10-02T04:09:51","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T08:09:51","slug":"assignment-1-rhetorical-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/assignments\/assignment-1-rhetorical-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"assignment 1: rhetorical analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rhetorical Analysis<\/strong>: \u00a0Some Uses of the Future(s)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

length<\/em>: \u00a03-4 pages<\/strong> (by which I mean: \u00a0go on to the fourth sheet of paper by at least a word, but not on to a fifth)<\/p>\n

due dates<\/em>: \u00a09.14 (topic\/proposal<\/em>), 9.17 (draft<\/em>), 9.21 (final<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This first assignment is of a piece with the conversations we’ve been having in class thus far. \u00a0Your task is to find some text (where “text” includes visual and audio media), event, or phenomenon that makes rhetorical use of the future in some interesting way and to unpack it in the terms we’ve been using. \u00a0You should be thinking about things like\u00a0ethos\/pathos\/logos<\/em>, ideology<\/em>, genre<\/em>, audience, context, effect<\/em>. \u00a0We seek here not to understand whether a particular vision of the future is true, accurate, or plausible, but to unpack how it is being used rhetorically, to what ends, for what audience, how effectively, and so on. \u00a0The question, as always, is not what the thing in front of us means,<\/em> but what it does<\/em>. \u00a0What is its force in the world, either intended or actual? \u00a0What is the gap between the two?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some questions to think about, to kick-start your analysis:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Is your object of analysis fictional or ostensibly nonfictional? \u00a0How does its (non)fictionality play into its rhetorical functioning? \u00a0Is it more believable and convincing because it’s presented as nonfiction? \u00a0More digestible or subtle because it’s presented as fiction?<\/li>\n
  • What are the typical expectations of its medium (think, for instance, of\u00a0Have a Nice Doomsday<\/em>‘s account of the\u00a0Left Behind<\/em> video games, and the weirdness of transmitting moral content through a medium in which one typically shoots and kills bad guys)? \u00a0Does your text deviate from them in interesting ways? \u00a0Do those expectations lend themselves to particular kinds of imaginings of the future?<\/li>\n
  • What kind of future is being invoked? \u00a0Is it a bad future against which we are being warned, or a positive future towards which an audience is supposed to yearn?<\/li>\n
  • Who is the audience of this text\/phenomenon? \u00a0Is there a difference between the audience the text wants to reach and the audiences it actually reaches (think again of the\u00a0Left Behind\u00a0<\/em>video games, and the difficulties of trying to sell a moralistic message through a medium largely designed for people not hugely receptive to such messages)?<\/li>\n
  • How does the speaker\/writer\/creator convince you of the plausibility of his or her imagined future? \u00a0Are there appeals made to his or her\u00a0ethos<\/em>\u00a0(credibility, authority, trustworthiness), i.e. “so-and-so has successfully predicted\u00a0x\u00a0<\/em>thing in the past,” or “so-and-so has written seven books on such-and-such”?<\/li>\n
  • Any rhetorical use of the future must imagine some connection between the present and the future it depicts. \u00a0How plausible is that connection here? \u00a0Is the logic of the connection implicit (as in Apple’s “1984” ad) or explicit (as in something like An Inconvenient Truth<\/em>)? \u00a0To what extent does the text\/phenomenon rely on a\u00a0logos<\/em> appeal, calling attention to the logic and plausibility of its claims, vs. other appeals?<\/li>\n
  • What is the nature of the\u00a0pathos<\/em> appeal of the text\/phenomenon? \u00a0How is this rhetorically deployed future supposed to make you\u00a0feel<\/em>?<\/li>\n
  • What, if anything, is the call to action? \u00a0What is the text\/phenomenon trying to make you do or do differently in the world, so as to embrace or avoid the future it depicts?<\/li>\n
  • In line with the Darko Suvin piece, is there anything about the present that the text\/phenomenon is trying to\u00a0estrange,\u00a0<\/em>to make weird or unrecognizable?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    <\/div>\n
    An especially pressing thing to think about is the distinction between an argument\u00a0about\u00a0<\/em>the future (“the future will look like this!” \u00a0“no, the future will look like\u00a0this!<\/em>“) and an argument that\u00a0uses\u00a0<\/em>the future instrumentally (e.g. the way\u00a0Moon<\/em> makes us rethink our structures of labor). \u00a0Though it’s certainly not a hard and fast distinction, be thinking about which kind of argument you think your text might be making–whether it’s more interested in arguing about the future or in using a particular future to argue about the present.<\/div>\n

    Consider, too, your voice in this paper. \u00a0The task is analytical, but that doesn’t mean your writing has to be dry. \u00a0Guyatt manages to produce fairly compelling prose throughout\u00a0Have a Nice Doomsday<\/em>, even when he’s unpacking somewhat dry points of scripture or political history.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rhetorical Analysis: \u00a0Some Uses of the Future(s)   length: \u00a03-4 pages (by which I mean: \u00a0go on to the fourth sheet of paper by at least a word, but not on to a fifth) due dates: \u00a09.14 (topic\/proposal), 9.17 (draft), 9.21 (final)   This first assignment is of a piece with the conversations we’ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":54,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-40","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions\/56"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/writingthefuture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}