Rhetorical criticism

Part of a series on
Rhetoric
History Ancient Greece Asianism Atticism Attic orators Calliope Sophists Ancient India Ancient Rome The age of Cicero Second Sophistic Middle Ages Byzantine rhetoric Trivium Renaissance Studia humanitatis Modern period
Concepts Captatio benevolentiae Chironomia Decorum Delectare Docere Device Eloquence Eloquentia perfecta Eunoia Enthymeme Facilitas Fallacy Informal Figure of speech Scheme Trope Five canons Inventio Dispositio Elocutio Memoria Pronuntiatio Hypsos Imitatio Kairos Method of loci Modes Operations Persuasion Ethos Pathos Logos Situation Style Grand Sotto voce Topos
Genres Apologetics Debate Declamation Controversia Deliberative Demagogy Dialectic Socratic method Dissoi logoi Elocution Epideictic Encomium Panegyric Eulogy Farewell speech Forensic Funeral oration Homiletics‎ Sermon Invitational Lecture Public Lightning talk Maiden speech Oratory Polemic Diatribe Eristic Philippic Progymnasmata Suasoria Propaganda Spin Resignation speech Stump speech War-mongering
Criticism Cluster Dramatic Pentadic Frame Genre Ideological Metaphoric Mimesis Narrative Neo-Aristotelian
Rhetoricians Aristotle Aspasia Augustine Bakhtin Booth Brueggemann Burke Cicero de Man Demosthenes Derrida Erasmus Gorgias Hobbes Isocrates Lucian Lysias McLuhan Ong Perelman Pizan Plato Protagoras Quintilian Ramus Richards Smith Tacitus Toulmin Vico Weaver
Works Gorgias (380 BC) Phaedrus (c. 370 BC) Rhetoric (c. 350 BC) Rhetoric to Alexander (c. 350 BC) De Sophisticis Elenchis (c. 350 BC) Topics (c. 350 BC) De Inventione (84 BC) Rhetorica ad Herennium (80 BC) De Oratore (55 BC) A Dialogue Concerning Oratorical Partitions (c. 50 BC) De Optimo Genere Oratorum (46 BC) Orator (46 BC) On the Sublime (c. 50) Institutio Oratoria (95) Panegyrici Latini (100–400) Dialogus de oratoribus (102) De doctrina Christiana (426) De vulgari eloquentia (1305) Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style (1521) Language as Symbolic Action (1966) A General Rhetoric (1970)
Subfields Argumentation Cognitive Contrastive Constitutive Digital Feminist Native American New Health and medicine Pedagogy Procedural Science Technology Therapy Visual Composition
Related Ars dictaminis Communication studies Composition studies Doxa Glossary of rhetorical terms Glossophobia List of feminist rhetoricians List of speeches Oral skills Orator Pistis Public rhetoric Rhetoric of social intervention model Rhetrickery Rogerian argument Seduction Speechwriting Talking point TED Terministic screen Toulmin model Wooden iron
v t e

Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and how the artifacts, as discourse, inform and instruct, entertain and arouse, and convince and persuade the audience; as such, discourse includes the possibility of morally improving the reader, the viewer, and the listener. Rhetorical criticism studies and analyzes the purpose of the words, sights, and sounds that are the symbolic artifacts used for communications among people.^[1]

The arts of Rhetorical criticism are an intellectual practice that dates from the time of Plato, in Classical Greece (5th–4th c. BC). Moreover, in the dialogue Phaedrus (c. 370 BC), the philosopher Socrates analyzes a speech by Lysias (230e–235e) the logographer (speech writer) to determine whether or not it is praiseworthy.

Criticism is an art, not a science. It is not a scientific method; it uses subjective methods of argument; it exists on its own, not in conjunction with other methods of generating knowledge (i.e., social scientific or scientific).^[2]

The academic purpose of Rhetorical criticism is greater understanding and appreciation in human relations:

By improving understanding and appreciation, the critic can offer new, and potentially exciting, ways for others to see the world. Through understanding we also produce knowledge about human communication; in theory, this should help us to better govern our interactions with others.^[3]