The Switched-off Circulation: A Rhetoric of Disconnect

ABSTRACT

The author theorizes a rhetoric of disconnect, defined as exigencies and becomings of rhetorical energies in the event of an abrupt, institutionally enforced disruption of digitally networked circulatory routes. A rhetoric of disconnect destabilizes current frameworks for analyzing digital rhetorical circulation and compels us to rethink the interplay between material rhetoricity, circulatory dimensions, and the public’s rhetorical adaptability in a transnational context. The theorization is accompanied by an analysis of the switched-off rhetorical circulation and “rhetorical rerouting” during the extended period of internet shutdown in Xinjiang, China in 2009 and 2010 that lasted 312 days. The author concludes by urging digital rhetoric and new media scholars to reassess assumptions of “always-on” digital connectivity and consider the fragility of digital rhetorical circulation under different forms of global information governmentality.

Notes

1. The author is grateful to Rhetoric Review editor Elise Hurley and reviewers Hugh Burns and Alex Reid for their generous support and guidance. Special gratitude goes to the author’s family and friends in Xinjiang for their resilience during the period of disconnect.

2. There is a growing scholarly interest in internet infrastructures and governance in China in communication studies. See, for example, the Chinese Journal of Communication’s 2019 special issue devoted to the platformization of Chinese society.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhaozhe Wang

Zhaozhe Wang is an Assistant Professor of Writing Studies at the University of Toronto. His work, broadly exploring multilingual literacy and non-Western/digital/public rhetorics, has appeared in College Composition and Communication, Composition Forum, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and WPA: Writing Program Administration. He is also co-editor of Reconciling Translingualism and Second Language Writing.