User:Normalusername123/Rhetorical situation

Biesecker
In response to both Bitzer and Vatz, Barbara Biesecker challenges the idea of the rhetorical situation in her 1989 article "Rethinking the Rhetorical Situation from Within the Thematic of Différance." Biesecker critiques both Bitzer's claim that rhetoric originates from the situation and Vatz's claim that the rhetoric itself creates its own situation. Rather, she proposes a deconstruction of rhetorical analysis, specifically through the lens of Jacques Derrida's thematic of différance. In addition to questioning proposed views of the speaker and the situation, this lens also challenges the view of the audience as a unified, rational concept. Taken together, Biesecker suggests that the thematic of différance allows us to see the rhetorical situation as an event that does not simply convince audiences to believe or act in a certain way or represent the claims put forth by a static speaker or situation. Rather, she argues, this deconstruction reveals the ability of the rhetorical situation to actually create provisional identities and social relationships through articulation.

Coe
The first time the concepts of rhetoric and ecology were explored in relation to one another was in 1975 by Richard Coe. In his article, "Eco-Logic for the Composition Classroom," Coe offers up eco-logic as an alternative to traditional analytical logic used in rhetoric and composition studies. The contrast between the two is that analytical logic breaks down wholes into smaller parts to examine them, while eco-logic examines the whole as itself. His primary proof in favor of this type of thinking and approach to rhetoric and composition is that the meaning of the written or spoken word is relative to the context in which it is written or spoken.

Cooper
A more explicit link between rhetoric and ecology was drawn in 1986 by Marilyn Cooper in her article titled "The Ecology of Writing." With an acute focus on the composition classroom, Cooper critiques the notion of writing as a primarily cognitive function, positing that it ignores important social aspects of the writing process. She also argues that a simply contextual perspective of writing is also insufficient; rather, an ecological view of writing extends past the immediate context of a writer and their text to examine the systems that the writer is a part of with other writers. Cooper suggests five different systems that are all intricately interwoven in the actual act of writing: ideas, purposes, interpersonal interactions, cultural norms, and textual forms. Cooper illustrates this ecological model using the metaphor of a web, in that something that impacts one system will inevitably impact all the systems. Cooper also addresses the significant rhetorical concern of audience, claiming that within the ecological model, views of audience are improved as the implication is that there is really communication with a real audience happening, as opposed to an imagined audience, or generalized other. For Cooper, the ecological model allows us to look at people who interact through writing and the systems making up the act of writing itself.

Jones
In 2021, Madison Jones published an article titled "A Counterhistory of Rhetorical Ecologies," challenging the rhetorical ecology framework. In the article, she explicitly acknowledges that she is not writing off the theory as something inherently bad; rather, she is observing complications within it and offering up creative new perspectives on the topic. She begins by outlining the environmental, colonial, and nuclear issues that arise when the metaphor of ecology is invoked. Tying this back to rhetoric, she argues that spatiotemporal issues within the idea of rhetorical ecology (i.e., issues that are related to the location and timing of a rhetorical event) are directly linked back to these historical realities interwoven into the larger idea of ecology. She suggests the framework of field histories as a way to acknowledge the complicated history of the field of ecology as it is used rhetorically. She particularly focuses on the need to employ place-based and community-engaged research to better understand the history of the discipline and work toward shaping a better future.