Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

The Rhetorical Situation Lloyd F. Bitzer If someone says, That is a dangerous situation, his words suggest the présence of events, persons, or objects which threaten him, someone else, or something of value. If someone remarks, I find myself in an embarrassing situation, again the statement implies certain situational characteristics. If someone remarks that he found himself in an ethical situation, we understand that he probably either contemplated or made some choice of action from a sensé of duty or obligation or with a view to the Good. In other words, there are circumstances of this or that kind of structure which are recognized as ethical, dangerous, or embarrassing. What characteristics, then, are implied when one refers to the rhetorical situation the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse Perhaps this question is puzzling because situation, is not a standard term in the vocabulary of rhetorical theory. Audience is standard so also are speaker, subject, occasion, and speech. If I were to ask, What is a rhetorical audience or What is a rhetorical subject the reader would catch the meaning of my question. When I ask, What is a rhetorical situation, I want to know the nature of those contexts in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse How should they be described What are their characteristics Why and how do they resuit in the création of rhetoric By analogy, a theorist of science might well ask, What are the characteristics of situations which inspire scientific thought A philosopher might ask, What is the nature of the situation in which a philosopher does philosophy And a theorist of poetry might ask, How shall we describe the context in which poetry comes into existence Lloyd F. Bitzer is Associate Professor of Speech, University of Wisconsin, Madison. This paper was presented as a public lecture at Cornell University in November 1966 and at the University of Washington in April 1967. A short version was read at the April 1967 meeting of the Central States Speech Association. 2 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION The présence of rhetorical discourse obviously in présence of a rhetorical situation. The Déclaration dence, Lincolns Gettysburg Address, ChurchiH Dunkirk, John F. Kennedys Inaugural Addres clear instance of rhetoric and each indicates the p situation. While the existence of a rhetorical addres sign of the existence of situation, it does not follo tion exists only when the discourse exists. Each re can recali a spécifie time and place when there wa to speak on some urgent matter, and after the op gone he created in private thought the speech he s tered earlier in the situation. It is clear that situations are not always accompanied by discourse. Nor should we assume that a rhetorical address gives existence to the situation on the contrary, it is the situation which calls the discourse into existence. Clement Attlee once said that Winston Churchill went around looking for finest hours. The point to observe is that Churchill found them the crisis situations and spoke in response to them. No major theorist has treated rhetorical situation thoroughly as a distinct subject in rhetorical theory many ignore it. Those rhetoricians who discuss situation do so indirectly as does Aristotle, for example, who is led to consider situation when he treats types of discourse. None, to my knowledge, has asked the nature of rhetorical situation. Instead rhetoricians hâve asked What is the process by which the orator créâtes and présents discourse What is the nature of rhetorical discourse What sorts of interaction occur between speaker, audience, subject, and occasion Typically the questions which trigger théories of rhetoric focus upon the orators method or upon the discourse itself , rather than upon the situation which invites the orators application of his method and the création of discourse. Thus rhetoricians distinguish among and characterize the types of Speeches forensic, deliberative, epideictic they treat issues, types of proof, lines of argument, stratégies of ethical and emotional persuasion, the parts of a discourse and the functions of thèse parts, qualities of styles, figures of speech. They cover approximately the same materials, the formai aspects of rhetorical method and discourse, whether focusing upon method, product or process while conceptions of situation are implicit in some théories of rhetoric, none explicitly treat the formai aspects of situation. I hope that enough has been said to show that the question What is a rhetorical situation is not an idle one. I propose LLOYD F. BITZER 3 in what follows to set forth part o essay, therefore, should be unders thè notion of rhetorical situation, line of an adequate conception of Controlling and fundamental concer I It seems clear that rhetoric is situational. In saying this, I do not mean merely that understanding a speech hinges upon understanding the context of meaning in which the speech is located. Virtually no utterance is fully intelligible unless meaningcontext and utterance are understood this is true of rhetorical and nonrhetorical discourse. Meaningcontext is a gen erai condition of human communication and is not synonymous with rhetorical situation. Nor do I mean merely that rhetoric occurs in a setting which involves interaction of speaker, audience, subject, and communicative purpose. This is too generai, since many types of utterances philosophical, scientif ic, poetic, and rhetorical occur in such settings. Nor would I equate rhetorical situation with persuasive situation, which exists whenever an audience can be changed in belief or action by means of speech. Every audience at any moment is capable of being changed in some way by speech persuasive situation is altogether general. Finally, I do not mean that a rhetorical discourse must be embedded in historié context in the sensé that a living tree must be rooted in soil. A tree does not obtain its characteras tree from the soil, but rhetorical discourse, I shall argue, does obtain its characterasrhetorical from the situation which générâtes it. Rhetorical works belong to the class of things which obtain their character from the circumstances of the historié context in which they occur. A rhetorical work is analogous to a moral action rather than to a tree. An act is moral because it is an act performed in a situation of a certain kind similarly, a work is rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind. In order to clarify rhetoricasessentiallyrelatedtosituation, we should acknowledge a viewpoint that is commonplace but fundamental a work of rhetoric is pragmatic it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself it fonctions 4 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION ultimately to produce action or change in the world it performs some task. In short, rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such a character that the audience thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes me change. In this sensé rhetoric is always persuasive. To say that rhetorical discourse comes into being i effect change is altogether general. We need to understand that a particular discourse comes into existence because of some spécific condition or situation which invites utterance Malinowski refers to just this sort of situation in his of primitive language, which he finds to be essentially and embedded in situation. He describes a party men in the Trobriand Islands whose functional speech occurs in a context of situation. The canoës glide slowly and noiselessly, punted b especially good at this task and always used for experts who know the bottom of the lagoon . . . the lookout for fish. . . . Customary signs, or s words are uttered. Sometimes a sentence füll of technical références to the Channels or patches on the lagoon has to be spoken sometimes ... a conventional cry is uttered. . . . Again, a word of command is passed hère and there, a technical expression or explanation which serves to harmonize their behavior towards other men. . . . An animated scene, füll of movement, follows, and now that the fish are in their power the fishermen speak loudly, and give vent to their feelings. Short, telling exclamations fly about, which might be rendered by such words as Pull in, Let go, Shift further, Lift the net. In this whole scene, each utterance is essentially bound up with the context of situation and with the aim of the pursuit. . . . The structure of ail this linguistic material is inextricably mixed up with, and dépendent upon, the course of the activity in which the utterances are embedded. Later the observer remarks In its primitive uses, language functions as a link in concerted human activity, as a piece of human behaviour. It is a mode of action and not an instrument of reflection.1 These Statements about primitive language and the context of situation provide for us a preliminary model of rhetorical situation. Let us regard rhetorical situation as a natural context of persons, events, objects, relations and an exigence which strongly invites utterance this invited utterance participates naturally in thè situation, is in many completion of situational activity, an tion with situation obtains its meaning and its rhetorical character. In Malinowskis example, thè situation is the fishing expedition consisting of objects, persons, even ruling exigence, thè success of thè hunt. The situation dictates thè sorts of observations to be made, it dictates the significant physical and verbal responses and, we must admit, it constrains thè words which are uttered in thè same sense that it constrains thè physical acts of paddling thè canoës and throwing thè nets. The verbal responses to thè demands imposed by this situation are clearly as functional and necessary as thè physical responses. Traditional théories of rhetoric hâve dealt, of course, not with thè sorts of primitive utterances described by Malinowski stop here, throw thè nets, move closer but with larger units of speech which come more readily under thè guidance of artistic principle and method. The différence between oratory and primitive utterance, however, is not a différence in func tion thè clear instances of rhetorical discourse and thè fishermens utterances are similarly functional and similarly situational. Observing both thè traditions of thè expédition and thè facts before him, thè leader of thè fishermen finds himself obligea to speak at a given moment to command, to supply information, to praise or blame to respond appropriately to thè situation. Clear instances of artistic rhetoric exhibit thè same character Ciceros speeches against Cataline were called forth by a spécifie union of persons, events, objects, and relations, and by an exigence which amounted to an imperative stimulus thè speeches in thè Senate rotunda three days after thè assassination of thè President of thè United States were actually required by thè situation. So Controlling is situation that we should consider it thè very ground of rhetorical activity, whether that activity is primitive and productive of a simple utterance or artistic and productive of thè Gettysburg Address. Hence, to say that rhetoric is situational means 1 rhetorical discourse comes into existence as a response to situation, in thè same sense that an answer comes into existence in response to a question, or a solution in response to a problem 2 a speech is given rhetorical significance by thè situation, just as a unit of discourse is given significance as answer or as solution by thè 6 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION question or problem 3 a rhetorical situation m necessary condition of rhetorical discourse, just must exist as a necessary condition of an answ questions go unanswered and many problems rema similarly, many rhetorical situations mature and giving birth to rhetorical utterance 5 a situation insofar as it needs and invites discourse capable of with situation and thereby altering its reality 6 rhetorical insofar as it functions or seeks to function response to a situation which needs and invites the situation controls the rhetorical response in t that the question controls the answer and the pro the solution. Not the rhetor and not persuasive in situation is the source and ground of rhetorical ac I should add, of rhetorical criticism. II Let us now amplify the nature of situation by prov définition and examining constituents. Rhetorical be defined as a complex of persons, events, obje tions presenting an actual or potential exigence completely or partially removed if discourse, introd situation, can so constrain human décision or actio about the significant modification of the exige the création and présentation of discourse, th constituents of any rhetorical situation the first is the second and third are éléments of the complex audience to be constrained in décision and acti constraints which influence the rhetor and can be bear upon the audience. Any exigence is an imperfection marked by urge defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, is other than it should be. In almost any sort of contex be numerous exigences, but not all are éléments o situation not all are rhetorical exigences. An exig cannot be modified is not rhetorical thus, whateve of necessity and cannot be changea death, winte naturai disasters, for instance are exigences to they are not rhetorical. Further, an exigence LLOYD F. BITZER 7 modified only by means other tha thus, an exigence is not rhetoric quires merely ones own action or neither requires nor invites thè as igence is rhetorical when it is capa and when positive modification req sisted by discourse. For example, s injurious to others and that the qua only if discourse is addressed to jurious acts is then unmistakab of our air is also a rhetorical exige fication réduction of pollution sistance of discourse producing pub and action of the right kind. Frequ gences which defy easy classificati information enabling precise ana they may or may not be rhetorical. been convicted may strongly believ reject his appeal to hâve the verdict matter is uncertain because the e he elects to appeal. In this and sim nate exigences the rhetors décis upon the urgency of the exigence exigence is rhetorical. In any rhetorical situation ther trolling exigence which functions spécifies the audience to be addr effected. The exigence may or may the rhetor or other persons in the or weak depending upon the clarit degree of their interest in it it ma on the facts of the case it may be be such that discourse can compl persist in spite of repeated modifi familiär one of a type of exigen our expérience or it may be to is perceived and when it is strong strains the thought and action of th rhetorically if he is an a position to The second constituent is the audience. Since rhetorical dis course produces change by influencing the décision and action of persons who function as mediators of change, it follows that rhetoric always requires an audience even in those cases 8 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION when a person engages himself or ideal mind as It is clear also that a rhetorical audience must be dis from a body of mere hearers or readers properly s rhetorical audience consists only of those persons w able of being influenced by discourse and of being m change. Neither scientific nor poetic discourse requires an audience in the same sensé. Indeed, neither requires an audience in order to produce its end thè scientist can produce a discourse expressive or generative of knowledge without engaging another mind, and thè poets creative purpose is accomplished when the work is composed. It is true, of course, that scientists and poets présent their works to audiences, but their audiences are not necessarily rhetorical. The scientific audience consists of per sons capable of receiving knowledge, and the poetic audience, of persons capable of participating in aesthetic expériences in duced by the poetry. But the rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change which the dis course functions to produce. Besides exigence and audience, every rhetorical situation con tains a set of constraints made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they hâve the power to constrain décision and action needed to modify the exigence. Standard sources of constraint include beliefs, atti tudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives and the like and when the orator enters the situation, his dis course not only harnesses constraints given by situation but pro vides additional important constraints for example his personal character, his logicai proofs, and his style. There are two main classes of contraints 1 those originated or managed by the rhetor and his method Aristotle called thèse artistic proofs, and 2 those other constraints, in the situation, which may be operative Aristotles inartistic proofs. Both classes must be divided so as to separate those constraints that are proper from those that are improper. These three constituents exigence, audience, constraints comprise everything relevant in a rhetorical situation. When the orator, invited by situation, enters it and créâtes and pré sents discourse, then both he and his speech are additional constituents. 8 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION when a person engages himself or ideal mind as It is clear also that a rhetorical audience must be dis from a body of mere hearers or readers properly s rhetorical audience consists only of those persons w able of being influenced by discourse and of being m change. Neither scientific nor poetic discourse requires an audience in the same sensé. Indeed, neither requires an audience in order to produce its end thè scientist can produce a discourse expressive or generative of knowledge without engaging another mind, and thè poets creative purpose is accomplished when the work is composed. It is true, of course, that scientists and poets présent their works to audiences, but their audiences are not necessarily rhetorical. The scientific audience consists of per sons capable of receiving knowledge, and the poetic audience, of persons capable of participating in aesthetic expériences in duced by the poetry. But the rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change which the dis course functions to produce. Besides exigence and audience, every rhetorical situation con tains a set of constraints made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they hâve the power to constrain décision and action needed to modify the exigence. Standard sources of constraint include beliefs, atti tudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives and the like and when the orator enters the situation, his dis course not only harnesses constraints given by situation but pro vides additional important constraints for example his personal character, his logicai proofs, and his style. There are two main classes of contraints 1 those originated or managed by the rhetor and his method Aristotle called thèse artistic proofs, and 2 those other constraints, in the situation, which may be operative Aristotles inartistic proofs. Both classes must be divided so as to separate those constraints that are proper from those that are improper. These three constituents exigence, audience, constraints comprise everything relevant in a rhetorical situation. When the orator, invited by situation, enters it and créâtes and pré sents discourse, then both he and his speech are additional constituents. LLOYD F. BITZER 9 III I hâve broadly sketched a conception of rhetorical situation and discussed constituents. The following are generai characteristics or features. 1. Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation thè situation which thè rhetor perceives amounts to an invita tion to create and présent discourse. The clearest instances of rhetorical speaking and writing are strongly invited often required. The situation generated by the assassination of Presi dent Kennedy was so highly structured and compelling that one could predict with near certainty the types and thèmes of forth coming discourse. With the first reports of the assassination, there immediately developed a most urgent need for informa tion in response, reporters created hundreds of messages. Later as the situation altered, other exigences arose the fantastic events in Dallas had to be explained it was necessary to eulogize the dead President the public needed to be assured that the transfer of government to new hands would be orderly. These messages were not idle performances. The historié situation was so compelling and clear that the responses were created almost out of necessity. The responses news reports, explana tions, eulogies participated with the situation and positively modified the several exigences. Surely thè power of situation is evident when one can predict that such discourse will be uttered. How eise explain the phenomenon One cannot say that the situation is the function of the speakers intention, for in this case the speakers intentions were determined by the Situation. One cannot say that the rhetorical transaction is simply a response of the speaker to thè demands or expectations of an audience, for the expectations of the audience were them selves keyed to a tragic historié fact. Also, we must recognize that there came into existense countless eulogies to John F. Kennedy that never reached a public they were filed, entered in diaries, or created in thought. In contrast, imagine a person spending his time writing eulo gies of men and women who never existed his speeches meet no rhetorical situations they are summoned into existence not by real events, but by his own imagination. They may exhibit formal features which we consider rhetorical such as ethical and emotional appeals, and stylistic patterns conceivably one of thèse fictive eulogies is even persuasive to someone yet all re main unrhetorical unless, through the oddest of circumstances, one of them by chance should fit a situation. Neither the près 10 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION enee of formai features in the discourse nor persuas a reader or hearer can be regarded as reliable marks discourse A speech will be rhetorical when it is a r the kind of situation which is rhetorical. 2. Although rhetorical situation invites response, it obviously does not invite just any response. Thus the second characteristic of rhetorical situation is that it invites a fitting response, a re sponse that fits the situation. Lincolns Gettysburg Address was a most fitting response to the relevant features of the historié context which invited its existence and gave it rhetorical signi ficance. Imagine for a moment the Gettysburg Address entirely separated from its situation and existing for us independent of any rhetorical context as a discourse which does not fit any rhetorical situation, it becomes either poetry or déclamation, without rhetorical significance. In reality, however, the address continues to hâve profound rhetorical value precisely because some features of the Gettysburg situation persist and the Gettys burg Address continues to participate with situation and to alter it. Consider another instance. During one week of the 1964 presi dential campaign, three events of national and international significance ail but obscured the campaign Krushchev was sud denly deposed, China exploded an atomic bomb, and in England the Conservative Party was defeated by Labour. Any Student of rhetoric could have given odds that President Johnson, in a major address, would speak to the significance of these events, and he did his response to the situation generated by the events was fitting. Suppose that the President had treated not these events and their significance but the national budget, or imagine that he had reminisced about his childhood on a Texas farm. The critic of rhetoric would have said rightly, He missed the mark his speech did not fit he did not speak to the pressing issues the rhetorical situation shaped by the three crucial events of the week demanded a response, and he failed to pro vide the proper one. 3. If it makes sensé to say that situation invites a fitting response, then situation must somehow prescribe the response which fits. To say that a rhetorical response fits a situation is to say that it meets the requirements established by the situation. A situation which is strong and clear dictâtes the purpose, thème, matter, and style of the response. Normally, the inauguration of a President of the United States demands an address which speaks to the nations purposes, the central national and inter LLOYD F. BITZER 11 national problems, the unity of con speech style marked by dignity. Wh casion is thè power of situation to c One might say metaphorically that e fitting response the rhetor may or m accurately. 4. The exigence and the complex of persons, objects, events and relations which generate rhetorical discourse are located in reality, are objective and publicly observable historié facts in the world we expérience, are therefore available for scrutiny by an observer or critic who attends to them. Το say the situation is objective, publicly observable, and historié means that it is real or genuine that our criticai examination will certify its exis tence. Real situations are to be distinguished from sophistic ones in which, for example, a contrived exigence is asserted to be real from spurious situations in which the existence or alleged exis tence of constituents is the resuit of error or ignorance and from fantasy in which exigence, audience, and constraints may all be the imaginary objects of a mind at play. The rhetorical situation as real is to be distinguished also from a fictive rhetorical situation. The speech of a character in a novel or play may be clearly required by a fictive rhetorical situation a situation established by thè story itself but the speech is not genuinely rhetorical, even though, considered in itself, it looks exactly like a courtroom address or a senate speech. It is realistic, made so by fictive context. But the situation is not real, not grounded in history neither the fictive situation nor the discourse generated by it is rhetorical. We should note, however, that the fictive rhetorical discourse within a play or novel may become genuinely rhetorical outside fictive context if there is a real situation for which the discourse is a rhetorical response. Also, of course, the play or novel itself may be understood as a rhetor ical response having poetic form. 5. Rhetorical situations exhibit structures which are simple or complex, and more or less organized. A situations structure is simple when there are relatively few éléments which must be made to interact the fishing expédition is a case in point there is a clear and easy relationship among utterances, the audiences, constraints, and exigence. Franklin D. Roosevelts brief Déclara tion of War speech is another example the message exists as a response to one clear exigence easily perceived by one major audi ence, and the one overpowering constraint is the necessity of war. On the other hand, the structure of a situation is complex 12 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION when many éléments must be made to interact prac presidential politicai campaign provides numerous co torical situations. A situation, whether simple or complex, will be hig tured or loosely structured. It is highly structured wh éléments are located and readied for the task to be p Malinowskis example, the fishing expédition, is a situ is relatively simple and highly structured everythin to the task to be performed. The usuai courtroom c example of situation which is complex and highly st The jury is not a random and scattered audience but and concentrated one it knows its relation to judge, dant, counsels it is instructed in what to observe an disregard. The judge is located and prepared he kno his relation to jury, law, counsels, défendant. The cou thè ultimate object of their case they know what prove they know the audience and can easily rea situation will be even more highly structured if the case is sharp, the évidence decisive, and the law c other hand, consider a complex but loosely structure William Lloyd Garrison preaching abolition from to He is actually looking for an audience and for const when he finds an audience, he does not know that i uinely rhetorical audience one able to be mediator Or consider the plight of many contemporary civil r cates who, failing to locate compelling constraints an audiences, abandon rhetorical discourse in favor action. Situations may become weakened in structure due to com plexity or disconnectedness. A list of causes includes thèse a a single situation may involve numerous exigences b exigen ces in the same situation may be incompatible c two or more simultaneous rhetorical situations may compete for our atten tion, as in some parliamentary debates d at a given moment, persons comprising the audience of situation A may also be the audience of situations B, C, and D e the rhetorical audience may be scattered, uneducated regarding its duties and powers, or it may dissipate f constraints may be limited in number and force, and they may be incompatible. This is enough to suggest the sorts of things which weaken the structure of situations. 6. Finally, rhetorical situations corne into existence, then either mature or decay or mature and persist conceivably some persisi indefinitely. In any case, situations grow and corne to LLOYD F. BITZER 13 maturity they evolve to just the course would be most fitting. In M comes a time in the situation when the leader of the fisherman should say, Throw the nets. In the situation generated by the assassination of the President, there was a time for giving descrip tive accounts of thè scene in Dallas, later a time for giving eulo gies. In a politicai campaign, there is a time for generating an issue and a time for answering a charge. Every rhetorical situa tion in principle evolves to a propitious moment for the fitting rhetorical response. After this moment, most situations decay we all hâve the expérience of creating a rhetorical response when it is too late to make it public. Some situations, on the other hand, persisi this is why it is possible to hâve a body of truly rhetorical literature. The Gettys burg Address, Burkes Speech to the Electors of Bristol, Socrates Apology thèse are more than historical documents, more than spécimens for stylistic or logicai analysis. They exist as rhetorical responses for us precisely because they speak to situations which persist which are in some measure universal. Due to either the nature of things or convention, or both, some situations recur. The courtroom is the locus for several kinds of situations generating the speech of accusation, the speech of défense, the charge to the jury. From day to day, year to year, comparable situations occur, prompting comparable responses hence rhetorical forms are born and a special vocabulary, gram mar, and style are established. This is true also of the situation which invites the inaugural address of a President. The situation recurs and, because we expérience situations and the rhetorical responses to them, a form of discourse is not only established but comes to hâve a power of its own the tradition itself tends to function as a constraint upon any new response in the form. IV In the best of ail possible worlds, there would be communication perhaps, but no rhetoric since exigences would not arise. In our real world, however, rhetorical exigences abound the world really invites change change conceived and effected by human agents who quite properly address a mediating audience. The practical justification of rhetoric is analogous to that of scientific inquiry the world présents objects to be known, puzzles to be 14 THE RHETORICAL SITUATION resolved, complexities to be understood hence the need for scientific inquiry and discourse similarly, th présents imperfections to be modified by means of dis hence the practical need for rhetorical investigation course. As a discipline, scientific method is justified ph cally insofar as it provides principles, concepts, and pr by which we corne to know reality similarly, rhetoric a pline is justified philosophically insofar as it provides p concepts, and procédures by which we effect valuable in reality. Thus rhetoric is distinguished from thè mer persuasion which, although it is a legitimate object of investigation, lacks philosophical warrant as a practical