MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Lisa Blankenship Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy ____________________________________________ Director Dr. Kate Ronald ____________________________________________ Reader Dr. Cindy Lewiecki-Wilson ____________________________________________ Reader Dr. LuMing Mao ____________________________________________ Reader Dr. Heidi McKee ____________________________________________ Graduate School Representative Dr. David Cowan ABSTRACT CHANGING THE SUBJECT: A THEORY OF RHETORICAL EMPATHY by Lisa Blankenship This project explores the concept of empathy as a rhetorical stance and strategy of engaging across marked social differences. It contributes to Krista Ratcliffe’s call for scholars in rhetoric and composition studies to “map more theoretical terrain and provide more pragmatic tactics for peaceful, cross-cultural negotiation and coalition building” (Rhetorical Listening 72). I define rhetorical empathy as a trope characterized by narrative and emotional appeals and as a topos or attitude interlocutors adopt to engage with socially marked difference, building on Susan Miller’s conception of rhetoric as emotion-based trust (Trust in Texts). This dissertation also addresses a gap in studies on empathy within cognitive science and psychology that typically focus on bodily responses to attempt to measure someone’s level of empathetic engagement within staged scenarios. Such studies often do not take into account the social position of research subjects or the role of motivations in empathetic responses. My research methodology for this project involves an analysis of three rhetorical exchanges involving marked social difference: in Chapter Three I focus on class in two late-nineteenth labor rights speeches of Jane Addams; Chapter Four centers on the intersection of sexuality/gender and religion in the rhetoric of two contemporary gay rights activists; and in Chapter Five I focus on constructions of race in the online, multimodal response of a minority student group to a racist Twitter incident at a midwestern U.S. university. I identify the following recurring and recursive moves as characteristic of rhetorical strategies based on empathy: • Appealing to the personal within discourse systems: experience and emotions • Considering motives behind speech acts and actions • Confronting difference and injustice • Situating a rhetorical exchange as part of an ongoing process of mutual understanding and (ex)change (including vulnerability and self-critique on the part of the rhetor) Rhetorical empathy functions as a way of forming connections and shifting power dynamics among interlocutors within a complex web of rhetorical exchange. By combining rhetoric and empathy, I highlight aspects of each: rhetoric as a strategic use of symbol systems using various modes of communication—language, still and moving images, and sound—and, after Wispé (“Distinction” 318), empathy as involving both a volitional, deliberate attempt to understand an Other and the emotional elements involved in such attempts. CHANGING THE SUBJECT: A THEORY OF RHETORICAL EMPATHY A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English by Lisa Blankenship Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2013 Dissertation Director: Dr. Kate Ronald © Lisa Blankenship 2013 Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................v Dedication .................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy .......................1 Chapter 2: Empathy’s History and Circulation in Rhetorical Traditions .................19 Chapter 3: Affectionate Interpretation: Jane Addams’s Labor Rights Rhetoric and Rhetorical Empathy ...........................................................31 Chapter 4: Appealing to the “Great Middle”: Rhetorical Empathy in the Intersection of Gay Rights and Religion .......................................54 Chapter 5: “The Real @Oxford Asians”: Rhetorical Empathy and Constructions of Race .............................................................................79 Chapter 6: Conclusions .............................................................................................101 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................109 Appendix A: The Real @Oxford Asians Discursive Response ....................................122 iii List of Tables Table 1: Characteristics and Examples of Rhetorical Empathy in Baldock’s and Lee’s Rhetoric .......................................................................62 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Recursive practices and characteristics of rhetorical empathy ..................9 Figure 2: Website of straight, evangelical gay rights activist Kathy Baldock ..........60 Figure 3: Justin Lee, featured in the popular evangelical Christian blog series “Ask A Gay Christian” ...........................................................61 Figure 4: Screen capture of the original @OxfordAsians Twitter feed ....................80 Figure 5: Tweets from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed .........................................81 Figure 6: “The Real @Oxford Asians,” a multimodal response to the @Oxford Asians Twitter feed ...................................................................82 Figure 7: The Real @Oxford Asians blog site ..........................................................83 Figure 8a: Tweet reading, “Father say key to success in USA is drive fancy car even if I can’t drive good” from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed ................................................................................................83 Figure 8b: Response from a member of the AAA reading, “Father say key to success in USA is respecting others” from The Real @OxfordAsians blog .................................................................................84 Figure 9a: Tweet reading, “Can’t decide if I want to take a Sunday drive in my Mercedes or Porsche” from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed ............84 Figure 9b: Response from a member of the AAA reading, “Can’t decide if I want social equality or respect” from The Real @OxfordAsians blog ......84 Figure 10a: Tweet reading “I ask professor 7 questions in a row. New record!” from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed .....................................................85 Figure 10b: Response from a member of the AAA reading, “I ask professor 7 questions in a row…At least I’m learning in college” from The Real @OxfordAsians blog ........................................................85 v Figure 11a: Tweet reading “Willing to trade 2 Vietnamese sweatshop workers for a Barstool ticket! DM me if interested!” from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed ....................................................................85 Figure 11b: Response from a member of the AAA reading, “DM me if you’re interested in promoting civil liberties for all people!” from The Real @OxfordAsians blog ........................................................86 Figure 12a: Tweet reading “Confucius say man who drop watch in toilet has a shitty time” from the @OxfordAsians Twitter feed .........................86 Figure 12b: Response from a member of the AAA reading, “Confucius say it is easy to hate and difficult to love” from The Real @OxfordAsians blog .................................................................................86 Figure 13: Screen capture of the @Oxford Asians Twitter feed showing avatars (photos) of people in the creator of the site’s social network who had “followed” the feed .......................................................87 Figure 14: Avatar and description of the @Oxford Asians Twitter feed ...................89 Figure 15: Screen capture of the @OSU_Asian Twitter account: “Your Favorite Asian” ..............................................................................91 Figure 16: OSU Haters Twitter page ..........................................................................92 Figure 17: OSU Haters Tumblr page ..........................................................................92 Figure 18: Screen capture of a tweet by an Ohio State University student on his Twitter account, re-posted to the OSU Haters Tumblr page ..........93 Figure 19: Twitter page of @OSU_WhitePerson .......................................................93 vi Dedication To Genevieve, who taught me about the Other. There are no words except that this is yours as much as mine, and always will be. vii Acknowledgements So many people were part of this longtime goal becoming real. The two subjects of Chapter 4, Kathy Baldock and Justin Lee, were generous with their time and willing to open up about how they do the difficult work of engaging other Christians on one of the most divisive topics of our generation. Kathy opened up her home to me for three days during our interview process, and Justin gave me his time during the release of his first book in the midst