Communicational Criticism

This book should be of interest to courses in rhetorical criticism and rhetorical theory.

Cohen introduces classical theories of rhetoric at the beginning of each chapter, then expands the discussion with contemporary postmodern theories, touching on concerns with aesthetics and cultural bias as well. Question and answer sections in each chapter and many specific, down-to-earth examples will attract and encourage students to harness the power of communication that shapes who we are, what we know, and what we do. A highly practical resource, Communication Criticism is the ideal for courses in popular culture, media studies, mass communication, and film studies.

This book focuses on seven entries in Carl R. Burgchardt’s Readings in Rhetorical Criticism, to which it adds a complementary effort. While maintaining a strategy of ongoing dialogue with both the prospective reader and the texts under scrutiny, the book acknowledges the author’s privileged moment of essential identification and represents a step out of the limiting frame of the inherently political character of inquiry. This allows the book to present personal narrative about guidance by specific critics such as Edwin Black, Forbes Hill, Karlyn Khors Campbell, Kenneth Burke, William Lewis, and Raymie McKerrow through the labyrinth of “that Leviathan, the public mind” (H. Wichelns). The volume mediates a cross-cultural re-conceptualization of academic writing, more adequately inscribed within the symbolic border between the consolidated American and other fragile profiles of the discipline of Communication Studies.

Now in its second edition, Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action presents a thorough, accessible, and well-grounded introduction to contemporary rhetorical criticism. Systematic chapters contributed by noted experts introduce the fundamental aspects of a perspective, provide students with an example to model when writing their own criticism, and address the potentials and pitfalls of the approach. In addition to covering traditional modes of rhetorical criticism, the volume presents less commonly discussed rhetorical perspectives, exposing students to a wide cross-section of techniques.

This introduction to criticism teaches students critical skills, whether examining television, fiction, nonfiction, visual arts, or oral and written discourse. Three introductory chapters provide a foundation to explore nine approaches to critical study. The perspectives presented bridge disciplinary boundaries and include: asking questions about how audiences process communication, understanding human symbol systems and social relations as vehicles for comprehending the world, value and narrative analysis, and psychoanalytic and ideological criticism. The discussions of using each approach contain questions critics are most likely to ask, assumptions governing the approach, an exploration of sample analyses that reveal vocabulary most frequently used, and a review of the problems encountered by critics.

To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. Aristotle At the age of 37 I learned to see criticism as a valuable tool, rather than something to be avoided or feared. This came about in the life-altering workshop with Dr. John Savage. My eyes were opened to the possibility, wisdom and power of intentional communication including criticism. This change improved my relationships: personally, family, socially, professionally, academically, financially and with myself profoundly. I confess that up to that point in my life, I had pretty much taken relationships for granted. From that point forward I have endeavored to continually learn about communication and relationships. I now know that it is possible to present and respond to criticism without making things worse, without adding fuel to the fire. I now know that potentially explosive situations can be skillfully defused or diffused, so that people can dance rather than fight, even in difficult situations. I now know that people can move from conflict to conversation and acknowledge the observation and experience of the person offering criticism. This approach makes way for possibilities other than the fight or flight syndrome, manifested as a skunk or turtle mode of survival. Occasionally, there are freeze responses resulting in a stalemate. Fight or flight offers the option of going into battle or waving the white flag of surrender, yielding merely a winner and a loser with no resolution. According to Dr. Hendrie Weisinger, in the introduction of his book, The Positive Power of Criticism, the Greek concept of criticism is to serve as a neutral, objective appraisal of ideas and actions. Criticism can be regarded as a judgment, evaluation or an appraisal intended to improve or advance, leading to new resources and skills. For this to be so requires moving away from the attitude and belief that ones own presuppositions, perceptions, and biases are absolute and correct.

Presents an evidence-based review of the make-or-break factors that determine the efficacy of criticism, praise, and advice. Deals with fundamental processes of feedback; problems with delivering feedback across social divides such as race; feedback in organisational settings, helping professions, and personal relationships. Hornsey, Uni of QLD.

Further developing the line of argument put forward in his Literature as Communication (2000) and Mediating Criticism (2001), Roger D. Sell now suggests that when so-called literary texts stand the test of time and appeal to a large and heterogeneous circle of admirers, this is because they are genuinely dialogical in spirit. Their writers, rather than telling other people what to do or think or feel, invite them to compare notes, and about topics which take on different nuances as seen from different points of view. So while such texts obviously reflect the taste and values of their widely various provenances, they also channel a certain respect for the human other to whom they are addressed. So much so, that they win a reciprocal respect from members of their audience. In Sell's new book, this ethical interplay becomes the focus of a post-postmodern critique, which sees literary dialogicality as a possible catalyst to new, non-hegemonic kinds of globalization. The argument is illustrated with major reassessments of Shakespeare, Pope, Wordsworth, Dickens, Churchill, Orwell, and Pinter, and there are also studies of trauma literature for children, and of ethically oriented criticism itself.