“The Day Belongs to the Students”: Expanding Epideictic's Civic Function

Abstract

The audience's violent response to the 2003 Rockford College commencement address illuminates challenges that surround the epideictic genre in a politically divided society. This essay explores the nature of the conflict that arose that day in order to consider ways in which the generic form of epideictic potentially facilitates communication among people with different views. This opportunity can be realized as rhetors and audiences acknowledge generic constraints, acknowledge social concerns, search for shared understanding, and commit themselves to an epideictic encounter that serves the educational function of constructively interrogating and reimagining public values.

Notes

¹Special thanks to RR readers Richard Leo Enos and Thomas P. Miller for insightful suggestions that have significantly improved this article, to Theresa Enos for guiding me through the process, and to Paul Pribbenow and Stephanie Quinn for their support and comments in response to an earlier draft of this article.