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Abstract:
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Rhetorics of identification traditionally address two questions : how does rhetoric work , who or what is involved in rhetorical relations , and how do these relations unfold and proceed , and how can and should we conduct ourselves in light of this state of things , what modes of engagement and response do we have available ? Rhetoricians have drawn substantially on Kenneth Burke’s work on symbolic action in answering these questions , but this emphasis on the symbolic does not exhaust the range and nature of rhetorical relations , and other modes of relationality thus warrant our attention . My work aims to consider how our understanding of identification shifts when we move beyond the symbolic frame , when we attend to rhetorical relations without grounding our inquiry in considerations of representation , interpretation , understanding , dialectics , and epistemology . Drawing on conversations in nonrational rhetorics , object -oriented ontology , postmodernism and postmodern literature , digital rhetorics , writing studies , and video game studies , I attend to the material , affective , and singular nature of rhetorical relations . I also consider the modes of engagement this understanding of identification makes available with reference to writing pedagogy and the work of authors Don DeLillo and David Foster Wallace . |