Rhetoricizing the urban. Finding a living public in Public Plaza

• Main Author: erin daina mcclellan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: professionaldreamers 2012-09-01
• Series: lo Squaderno
• Subjects: Urban rhetorics / Retoriche urbane; lo Squaderno No. 25
• Online Access: http://www.losquaderno.professionaldreamers.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/losquaderno25.pdf#page=45

The city is a complex and nuanced collection of symbols, actions, interactions, and meanings rife for analysis at any given moment. Rhetorical scholarship adds unique insights into how such meanings are constructed, interpreted, and enacted. Much of the foundational research in the field of communication traces back to McGee’s1 disciplinary transition“from rhetorical materialism to rhetoric’s materiality".As Biesecker and Lucaites point out, this critical discus- sion has led to understanding rhetorical objects as on a“continuum of rhetorical influence that extend from the most concrete incidence of microrhetorical experience to increasingly abstract socio- and macro-rhetorical experiences”