The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics
Published on 12. May 2011
Book
Hardback
322 pages
978-0-7391-6528-7 (ISBN)
Description
This volume focuses on the connection between style and politics. Commentaries on the styles of political candidates seem to outpace serious discussions of policy and credentials; politicians and commentators alike parse Barack Obama's ability to manipulate stylistic dimensions of race, class, and national origin. Political battles continue to rage in France over whether Islamic women may wear head coverings. The contributors to this volume treat two different though related meanings of the term 'politics.' The first of these is the conventional electoral politics, in which critics may argue about whether a 'feminine style' can ever carry a national election. The second meaning refers to politics in the sense of everyday struggles over power. In this sense there is a politics in the style expected of corporate boardroom behavior, which excludes and disempowers those who display a style of the streets. As the volume's careful analysis demonstrates, both aspects of politics are very much connected to style.
Reviews / Votes
This collection demonstrates not only the pervasive influence of style within rhetoric and politics but also the kinds of insights that are generated when we attend to it. The essays collected here represent a wide spectrum of rhetorical inquiries and provide a valuable breadth in both topic and approach. Engaging topics as varied as Madeleine Albright's use of jewelry, the relationship between fine wines and rhetorical theory, and the films of Rob Zombie, these essays demonstrate the kinds of artifacts that can be understood through a conception of style. Students of rhetoric, of politics and of culture will benefit greatly from the critical work accomplished in this volume. -- Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics engages in vigorous analysis of style in politics and the politics of style in everyday practices. The volume's contributors take up the important link between style and rhetoric present from the earliest understandings of rhetoric to recent work by scholars like Robert Harriman and Stewart Ewan. Carefully organized, well conceptualized, and intriguingly written, this book is sure to influence our thinking and writing about style's rhetorical consequentiality. -- Greg Dickinson, Colorado State UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7391-6528-7 (9780739165287)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Barry Brummett is the Charles Sapp Centennial Professor in Communication and Department Chair at University of Texas-Austin.
Content
Part 1 Preface: The Problems and Promises of Rhetorical Style Part 2 Introduction: Politics and the Rhetoric of Style Part 3 Part I: Style in the rhetoric of politics Chapter 4 Chapter 1: Preserving America: The Tea Party Movement and the Cultivation of Revolutionary Conservatism Chapter 5 Chapter 2: Stylizing Sotomayor: Style as Rhetoric of Caricatures Chapter 6 Chapter 3: Political Style for the People: Nonviolence as Political Power Chapter 7 Chapter 4: The Narcissistic Style of American Politics: The Rhetorical Appeal of Sarah Palin Chapter 8 Chapter 5: Experiential Political Style: Oprah Winfrey's Identification with the Electorate Chapter 9 Chapter 6: Read Her Pins: Analyzing Madeleine Albright's Brooches as a Means of Procuring Space for Women in Politics through Image and Aesthetics Chapter 10 Chapter 7: The Decider and The Debater: George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Two Very Different Democratic Styles Part 11 Part II: Style in the politics of culture Chapter 12 Chapter 8: The Rhetoric of Style for a New Millennium: Project Runway's Tim Gunn as Apocalyptic Prophet Chapter 13 Chapter 9: The Roots of Style: Hair, Cultural Politics, and Epideictic Rhetoric Chapter 14 Chapter 10: On Drawing Knives and Experience: The Rise of the Ekphrastic Text in Bravo's Top Chef Chapter 15 Chapter 11: Style as Othering: Authenticity, Class, and Identity in Meet the Natives, U.S.A. Chapter 16 Chapter 12: The First Amendment and Rhetorical Style: The Politics of School Dress Codes Chapter 17 Chapter 13: Sinister Surfaces and the Style of Simulacra in the Modern "Stylized" Horror Film Chapter 18 Chapter 14: Ce n'est pas une pipe. C'est rhetorique Chapter 19 Chapter 15: 15: Eccentri(cities): The Rhetoric of Style Through the Lens of the Weird Chapter 20 Chapter 16: Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Commemoration, Camp, and Countering the Traumatic Chapter 21 Chapter 17: A Politics of Affectation, Or, How to Out-dead the Undead Chapter 22 Chapter 18: Quaffable, but uh...far from transcendent: Wine, Rhetorical Style and Politics