Gandhi's concept of civil disobedience is analyzed through an application of Kenneth Burke's "comic frame." His leadership of the Indian civil rights movement is characterized by a ritual form ...emphasizing a recognition of both social and individual power, attempts at identification with the social order even while attacking it, and an emphasis on epiphany as a ritual goal. The "comic frame," it is argued, is a useful construct for interpreting and assessing certain rhetorical movements.
Nativism has provided the impetus for several short-lived political movements. This paper analyzes the rhetoric of the first national political party to successfully use nativism in its platform, the ...Know-Nothing party of the 1850's. The analysis of the nativist rhetoric of the party reveals that the source of both its success and failure lies in the traditional values party members used to overcome the constraints traditionally imposed upon the nativist response to the rhetorical situation.
This long-needed sourcebook assesses the unique styles and themes of notable African-American orators from the mid-19th century to the present-of 43 representative public speakers, from W.E.B. Du ...Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson to Barbara Jordan and Thurgood Marshall. The critical analyses of the oratory of a broad segment of different types of public speakers demonstrate how they have stressed the historical search for freedom, upheld American ideals while condemning discriminatory practices against African-Americans, and have spoken in behalf of black pride. This biographical dictionary with its evaluative essays, sources for further reading, and speech chronologies is designed for broad interdisciplinary use by students, teachers, activists, and general readers in college, university, institutional, and public libraries.
