In Grant-Davie’s piece Rhetorical
Situations and Their Constituents, he addresses the need of discourse and
the importance that it has in regards to rhetoric. He explains that in order for a discourse to
even come about, something prior had to cause a need for it. The
opportune time to speak or write must be brought on by an event or
discovery that effects a person so much that they are driven to write or speak
about the event, ultimately to a similar group of people who were also impacted
by the event, in either an agreed or differed way.
Grant-Davie also expressed that, “Rhetors need to consider
who they are in a particular situation and be aware that their identity may
vary from situation to situation.” The
idea of switching roles from situation to situation is something that most
people do without realizing that they are doing it. (I know it had never occurred to me before
learning about discourse communities and the switches that we make in presence
and delivery according to our audience.)
I consider my parents one specific audience, my friends another,
coworkers and customers, another. All of
them have different expectations, and different discourses that have been
established, which can sometimes be called upon simultaneously. This is where
constraints are applied to an audience.
If I am speaking to all three (parents, friends, and coworkers, say, at
a company picnic), I am now required to please all three which may call for the
coworker discourse rise above the
others because they are the priority audience of the moment.
I really like your discussion of how we switch seamlessly between discourses. We all like to believe that we have one identity, but in reality there are certainly many different identities that we take on in different scenarios. Your example of melding discourses is an important point that all writers need to take into consideration when composing.
ReplyDeleteConcur with Carson, and thus of course with you Jodi. I'd add that it's frustrating to encounter in culture the notion that such switching is wrong because it lacks some god-quality like "integrity" or "consistency." Nope: the term for who people who can't do this fluid shifting is "sociopath." Everyone else does it just fine; the only questions are whether they're aware of it and will admit to it.
ReplyDelete