Modern Rhetorical Criticism

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the analysis of public rhetoric, Modern Rhetorical Criticism teaches readers how to examine and interpret rhetorical situations, ideas, arguments, structure, and style. The text covers a wide range of critical techniques, from cultural and dramatistic analysis to feminist and Marxist approaches. A wealth of original criticism demonstrates how to analyze such diverse forms as junk mail, congressional debates, and traffic regulations, as well as literature. This long-awaited revision contains new coverage of mass media, feminist criticism, and European criticism.

New to This Edition

• Both the language of the text and the examples have been rewritten to make the text more engaging and accessible to undergraduate students.
• Tips for the Practicing Critic offer advice for students to help them craft their own critiques.
• An increased emphasis on feminism and cultural criticism, with more examples featuring women and diverse groups.
• More Critical Probes have been added and have been redesigned to make them a more effective pedagogical tool.
• Chapter 9, Analyzing Media, now includes coverage of the rhetoric of the Internet.

About the Authors
Roderick P. Hart holds the Allen B. Shivers Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, and specializes in political communication, methods of rhetorical criticism, and persuasion in social movements. A four-time winner of the National Communication Association's annual research award and the recipient of the Association's Winans/Wichelns Memorial Book Award, he has published on such topics as the rhetoric of the true believer, rhetorical sensitivity and social interaction, the language of the modern presidency, and communication studies as the new humanities.

Suzanne M. Daughton teaches courses in rhetorical theory and criticism and gender studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She has served on several editorial boards and as editor of Women's Studies in Communication. Samples of her work have appeared in Women's Studies in Communication, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Critical Studies in Mass Communication.