CONGRUENT AFFINITIES: RECONSIDERING THE EPIDEICTIC by JOSEPH WYATT GRIFFIN A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2017 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Joseph Wyatt Griffin Title: Congruent Affinities: Reconsidering the Epideictic This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: John Gage Chairperson James Crosswhite Core Member Anne Laskaya Core Member Mary Jaeger Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2017 ii © 2017 Joseph Wyatt Griffin This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Joseph Wyatt Griffin Doctor of Philosophy Department of English June 2017 Title: Congruent Affinities: Reconsidering the Epideictic Aristotle's division of the "species" of rhetoric (deliberative, forensic, and epideictic) has served as a helpful taxonomy in historical accounts of rhetoric, but it has also produced undesirable effects. One such effect is that epideictic rhetoric has been interpreted historically as deficient, unimportant or merely ostentatious, while political or legal discourse retained a favored status in authentic civic life. This analysis argues that such an interpretation reduces contemporary attention to the crucial role that epideixis plays in modern discourse. As often interpreted, epideictic rhetoric contains at its heart a striving toward communal values and utopic ideals. Taking as its province the good/bad, the praiseworthy/derisible, it is a rhetorical form supremely attentive to what counts for audiences, cultures, and subcultures. As such, it has direct entailments for all forms of rhetorical practice, however categorized, for in its essence is not simply a suggestion of timeliness or appropriate context for its delivery, but also method: a focus on identification and affinity is at the heart of epideixis. Taking an expanded definition of epideixis, I argue that Aristotle's classification be read as provisional (that he allowed for and expected overlap with his divisions), and further, that criticism be seen as a form of contemporary epideixis. I claim that contemporary norms iv are more fractured than in classical times, and that as citizens no longer at the behest of formerly more unified cultural ideals it is through acts of criticism and aesthetic consensus that we often form emergent communities, gathering around objects of appraisal, around that which offers us pleasure (even the popular). I attempt to account for the mechanics of how, as Dave Hickey argues, “beautiful objects reorganize society, sometimes radically" (Invisible Dragon 81). The vectors through which this reorganization occurs are via popular discourse involving “comparisons, advocacy, analysis, and dissent” (Hickey Invisible Dragon 70), be it at the level of the interpersonal or in a more widely-sanctioned public forum such as professional criticism. I hope to show that epideixis is not a moribund rhetorical category, but a key discursive mode and way of forming community in our times. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Joseph Wyatt Griffin GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Miami University Brigham Young University-Idaho DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, 2017, University of Oregon Master of Arts, English, 2010, Miami University, Ohio Bachelor of Science, English, 2004, Brigham Young University-Idaho AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Rhetoric and Composition Classical Rhetoric Rhetorical Theory Criticism Critical Theory PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Assitant Professor of English, Brigham Young University-Idaho, April 2016--Present Visiting Faculty in English, Brigham Young University-Idaho, September 2015- April 2016 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Oregon Composition Program, 2015 Oregon Humanities Center Graduate Support Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2015 Steingart Fellowship, Department of English, University of Oregon, 2011 Wegelin Fellowship, Department of English, University of Oregon, 2011 vi PUBLICATIONS: Griffin, Joseph. “‘In’ and Not ‘Of’: Metaphors of the World in LDS Discourse.” The Journal of Communication and Religion. 37.4 (2014): 30-41. Print. ---. “Sonic Palimpsests: Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ as Threnody for Sandy Hook.” The New Union, http://www.new-union.co.uk. Vol. 2. (2014). Web. ---. “Review of Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Researchers.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College. 38.3 (2011): 309-10. Print. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In a dissertation about praise, first, some praise. This project is the result of care and inclusion on the part of numerous people across various institutions. From Ricks/BYU- Idaho, my gratitude to Scott Samuelson, Murray Hunt, Brian Merrill, Larry Thompson, Braden Hepner, Quinn Grover, Darren Merrill, Mark Bennion, and Kierstin Holland for their ideas, encouragement, support, and friendship. I’m also grateful to Nate Ivy for his help en route to the dissertation defense. From Miami University, I’m grateful to LuMing Mao and Kate Ronald for not only their years of gracious support, but for initiating me into rhetoric as a field of study. Also from Miami, I’m grateful to Cathy Wagner, Tim Melley, Lisa Blankenship, Dominic Ashby, Kevin Rutherford, Scott Wagar, Kerrie Carsey, Bre Garrett, Aurora Matzke, John Tassoni, and my good friend Brett Strickland for the intellectual influence and care. At Oregon, I’m grateful to the Oregon Humanities Center for their support during the second year of my dissertation. Also from Oregon, I’m humbly grateful for fellow students to whom I owe more than a mere “thank you.” Notably, my friends in the Rhetoric Colloquium and the subsequent Albert Kitzhaber Rhetoric Society deserve special mention: Shane Hall, Rachel Tanner, Kristy Kelly, and Francesca Gentile gave me encouraging early feedback regarding my proposed project. To my stellar cohort at Oregon, I owe deep thanks, particularly to Matt Hannah, Amanda Bartenstein, Kaitlin Stodola, Alison Lau, Rachel Bash, Katie Jo LaRiviere, Mitchel Macrae, Steven Norton, Marcus Hensel, and Bruno Seraphim. I have been the beneficiary of the ideas and insights of numerous administrative professionals, professors and instructors at Oregon through the course of my study. I’m grateful to Mike viii Stamm, Kathy Furrer, Susan Meyers, Mary Jaeger, Stephanie Clark, Ben Saunders, Mark Johnson, Edgar Temam, Miriam Gershow, and Carolyn Bergquist for their insights, encouragement, and support. I’m grateful to Lara Bovilsky for her enviable energy, tenacity, and brilliance. Of special mention is Tres Pyle for introducing me to many of the readings that would prove formative in the development of a dissertation topic. Anne Laskaya has been a wonderful and brilliant scholar and friend through this process, always uncannily offering support when I seemed to need it most. Jim Crosswhite has significantly influenced both my thinking and demeanor as a teacher, and I thank him for his example of openness and inquiry. This dissertation would not have been possible without the patient help and guidance of John Gage, and I am indebted to him for his foresight and personalized instruction and wisdom. Thank you, John. I’m grateful to my parents, Marilyn and Gerald Griffin, for the home they established for my siblings and I, and for always loving me and supporting my desires. I’m grateful to my brother Daniel Griffin who is a paragon of intellectual honesty, for taking interest in my work and always being willing to challenge my ideas. Above all, I’m grateful to my wife, Ashley Griffin, for her patience and hard work through my many absences and working nights. You have anchored our family and me amidst the waves, and you have been my best friend and confidant through the highs and lows. My gratitude and love to you cannot be overexpressed. ix To Ash, Pennie, Lucas, Daphne, and Milo, in an old stone house on the high desert. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE AMBIGUOUS THIRD GENRE ..................................................................... 1 Comingled Rhetorical Species ................................................................................. 5 The Issue of Judgment in Epideixis .......................................................................... 10 Rhetoric’s Tripartite Division—the Surface Distinctions ........................................ 14 Examining the Species More Closely ....................................................................... 25 The Effects of the Epideictic ................................................................................... 30 The Subject Matter of the Epideictic ....................................................................... 34 Concluding Thoughts ............................................................................................. 46 II. SELECTED INTERPRETATIONS OF EPIDEIXIS .............................................. 49 Rhetorica ad Herennium and the Epideictic .............................................................. 50 Cicero and the Epideictic .......................................................................................