rhetorical analysis of crises

rhetorical analysis as a means to foster reflection in a time of war

A resource page for college and high school teachers

Thomas P. Miller, English Dept., U of Arizona homepage

What's rhetorical about terrorism?

What is rhetorical analysis?

A student paper on the Koran and Violence

Sites for rhetorical Analysis

Other sites for rhetorical analysis

Civic matters

What are we, as teachers of rhetoric and writing, to do with a text such as this:

REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, you've declared a jihad against the United States. Can you tell us why? And is the jihad directed against the US government or the United States' troops in Arabia? What about US civilians in Arabia or the people of the United States?

BIN LADIN: We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of the Prophet's Night Travel Land [Palestine]. And we believe the US is directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. The mention of the US reminds us before everything else of those innocent children who were dismembered, their heads and arms cut off in the recent explosion that took place in Qana [in Lebanon]. This US government abandoned even humanitarian feelings by these hideous crimes. It transgressed all bounds and behaved in a way not witnessed before by any power or any imperialist power in the world. They should have been considerate that the qibla [Mecca] of the Muslims upheaves the emotion of the entire Muslim World. Due to its subordination to the Jews the arrogance and haughtiness of the US regime has reached, to the extent that they occupied the qibla of the Muslims who are more than a billion in the world today. A reaction might take place as a result of US government's hitting Muslim civilians and executing more than 600 thousand Muslim children in Iraq by preventing food and medicine from reaching them. So, the US is responsible for any reaction, because it extended its war against troops to civilians. This is what we say. As for what you asked regarding the American people, they are not exonerated from responsibility, because they chose this government and voted for it despite their knowledge of its crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and in other places and its support of its agent regimes who filled our prisons with our best children and scholars. We ask that may God release them.

An excerpt from Peter Arnett's interview of Osama bin Laden

( For audio, video and text versions, visit bin Laden CNN website)

The events of September 11 challenged all of us to consider the relations between what we teach, whom we want to help our students become, and what public purposes we hope to serve. For most of us, the terrorist bombings in America and abroad may have been worthy of gestures of private sympathy but are largely unrelated to our professional responsibilities as teachers of of rhetoric and composition. I believe that the events of September 11 and the “war on terrorism” challenge us to reflect on the purposes that are served by teaching rhetoric and composition. The study of rhetoric is about understanding what motivates people to act. Teaching people to analyze such motivations can create a space for identification with those who are beyond reason. In this way, rhetorical analysis can open up a space where people can reflect and deliberate before rushing to action.

Rhetoric has historically defined itself as an alternative to war, embodied in the gesture of the open hand as opposed to the fist closed tightly around logical certainties. In this way, the study of rhetoric addresses itself to the space of possibilities that lies between what can be assumed and what lies beyond question. We can open up this zone of proximal development by helping people to stop and reflect upon what experiences and beliefs have motivated such actions, what we make of ourselves by reacting to them as we have, and how we can intervene in the actions that others are undertaking upon our behalf. Politics is not a spectator sport. There is a good in helping ourselves and others to respond more reflectively and actively to political affairs, and I believe that rhetorical analysis can help us to achieve that civic good.

Rhetorical analysis shifts the focus from what is written to how it is written by focusing on questions about audience, situation and purpose. Such questions challenge readers to reflect upon the assumptions, experiences and expectations that readers and writers bring to texts, and to critique the purposes that are served by representing such experiences in these terms at this time and place. While students can begin with questions about such mechanical categories as ethical appeals, logical appeals, and pathetic appeals, these categories open out into broader questions about who has the authority to speak in this domain of experience, what is constituted as reasonable in this genre, and what responses are assumed to be appropriate. Attending to how audiences, situations and purposes are negotiated in a text helps move readers from functional to critical literacy by opening up texts to critical reflection. This sort of reflection helps students to reflect upon the domain between what can be assumed and what lies beyond argument, the domain that we generally refer to as common sense. By opening this domain up for critical analysis, we expand the realm of the sayable, and perhaps expand the space between action and reaction to include reflection. That is the space for hope.

For more information on how rhetorical analysis can serve as a bridge between the teaching of reading and writing, here is a resource page on rhetorical analysis

Rhetorical analysis can also be used to foster critical thinking during the research process. For example, here are some basic questions that one might ask students to research on the topic of terrorism:

1) People have said that on September 11 the world changed. Do you agree or disagree with that statement? In what ways did the events of that day change how we live, what rights we assume we have, or how we treat people from other backgrounds?

2) What are the conditions that create and sustain terrorism? What is the world-view of the terrorist, and what is needed to "combat" terrorism? Why is America a target for terrorists?

3) Since September 11, the economy has been fragile and remains uncertain. What would need to happen in order for the economy to improve? What factors shape the economy, and what is the government’s role in improving the economy?

4) What changes in security procedures and technologies have been instituted since 9/11? Are they adequate to prevent terrorism? Major increases in funding have been made in security and the military. Are they justified? What has been sacrificed to support them?

5) How has the “war on terrorism” changed the role of the American government and military in the world? What is the appropriate international role for the American government and military, and what should we do in any one of the specific countries that have been cited as a site for possible intervention?

As students work to answer these questions, they can be pushed to look beyond reporting content to analyzing assumptions and purposes.

This student draft provides a point of reference for considering what sort of writing to expect when students are assigned to research and do rhetorical analysis of topical issues.

Rhetorical analysis provides a means to foster critical analysis of the assumptions that motivated those who killed several thousand people on September 11, and the purposes that have been served by killing thousands more in the international "war on terrorism." Helping our students to reflect upon the cultural differences and political purposes served by these events is vital to anyone concerned with rhetoric's civic identification with the craft of citizenship. Rhetorical analysis was traditionally taught to foster public resistance to propaganda. Such teaching has become more demanding as the public has become mediated. The "war on terrorism" is perhaps the first internet war, with terrorist demands sent via email and people of varied backgrounds rushing to throw up homepages that present far more diverse perspectives than the corporate-controlled mass media. As teachers of literacy in the twenty-first century, we have an obligation to help students consider this range of perspectives and to use them to think critically about the marketing of grief, patriotism, and war on the mass media.

Here are some sources that present a range of voices that are useful to challenge students' assumptions and help them develop a broader and more detailed understanding of the cultural and political conflicts at issue.

September 11 Resources provides a wealth of materials including foreign news reports and varied position statements up to November, 2001.

Afghan News Network includes numerous stories on American and UN military actions that differ dramatically from television news reports.

"Being the Enemy Within: Muslims living in the West are caught in a dangerous dichotomy" by Yasmin Alibha-Brown provides a Time essay by an Arab American for rhetorical analysis.

"An Afghan-American speaks" by Tamim Ansary is another response to the bombings. Ansary argued "You can't bomb us back into the Stone Age. We're already there. But you can start a new world war, and that's exactly what Osama bin Laden wants."

Other sites for rhetorical analysis are available on a host of subjects that could be used to make rhetoric a bridge across the high school curriculum between English and social studies courses or in college courses concerned with American studies and/or cultural studies.

Famous Trials by Doug Linder this fascinating collection of primary materials on famous legal cases ranges across the Salem Witch Trials, the O.J. case and the Scopes Monkey trial, just to name a few. The arguments for and against, the primary texts, pictures, and historical materials make this a superb site for varied uses and levels of instruction.

Online Speech Bank includes a searchable database of 5000 speeches in audio, text and video forms

Complete speeches of a range of figures, including such important speakers of African descent as Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X and Bishop Tutu as well as Inaugural Speeches from Washington to Bush and Native American oratory.

Nazi and East German Propaganda provides an archive of print and visual materials for rhetorical analyses of propaganda that could be used to link English and social studies courses or for a college course that included rhetorical analyses of visual media.

Squeeze Play: The Campaign for a New Twins Stadium by Edward Shiappa and his students at the University of Minnesota is a terrific model of how locally focused research, rhetorical analysis, and community activism can be joined together.

The Read Between the Lines page of the PBS Democracy Project includes pages aimed at analyzing ads, debates, polls, and platforms for high school students.

Philosophy and Civil Society: Inventing Postmodern Civic Culture provides rich philosophical accounts of the "crisis in liberal democracy" that arises when we commit ourselves to valuing cultural differences, attempt to move beyond modern individualism, and confront the overwhelming complexities of mediated public spheres.

eserver.org is a website for teachers and professors of English, with materials on technology, cultural and literary studies and progressive politics, including links to rhetoric resources.