Geographical Rhetoric: Modes and Tropes of Appeal

Abstract

Geographers are frequently enjoined to identify and satisfy the interests of their audience, as performance of this service is the ultimate justification for the field's continued existence. There is, however, little agreement on how best to render this service, largely because there has been little thought about the nature of the audience, or about its role in shaping geographical discourse. Geographers must recognize the existence of multiple audiences, and understand that these audiences are not identical to existing institutional and epistemological categories. Audiences are constituted by rhetorical prejudices and perferences. To satisfy an audience, and earn its trust, the writer must confirm their prejudices and respect their preferences. I present two alternative maps of geographical audiences, using selected examples from twentieth-century Anglophone geography. First, I describe prejudices about the nature of action, which a writer must confirm if he or she is to be regarded as “good,” and consequently re-map geogrphical discourse in terms of Northrop Frye's fictional modes (romance, tragedy, comedy, and irony). Second, I describe preferences for types of representation, which a writer must respect if he or she is to be regarded as “speaking well,” and consequently re-map geographical discourse in terms of Kenneth Burke's master tropes (metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony). I conclude that geographical rhetoric is primarily shaped by the need to win the trust of an audience. The rhetorical cultivation of trust does not preclude the presuit of truth as a goal of geographical writing, but it must be regarded as primary.

Key Words:

• discourse
• geography
• language
• rhetoric
• tropology