Abstract
In the recently declared “Stylistic (Re)Turn” in rhetoric and composition, several scholars reference pages fifty-eight and fifty-nine of A Rhetoric of Motives as being important to style studies. These pages, given Kenneth Burke’s perplexity, require further discussion. The rhetorical figures antithesis and gradatio are used on these pages as representative anecdotes of the figures’ capacity as forms to induce identification. Antithesis and gradatio illustrate a concept of somatic rhetorical figuration based on a rhetorical aesthetic which is summarized on page fifty-eight. Figures, or formal patterns, overlap and point to the continued relevance of classical rhetoric as a way of discussing style across disciplines.
Notes
1 The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and suggestions for improvement provided by RR reviewers T.R. Johnson and another anonymous reviewer.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jarron Slater
Jarron Slater is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication at the University of Minnesota where he researches and teaches technical and professional writing, rhetoric, and style. Readers are welcome to contact him at [email protected].