Breaking Up (at) Totality: A Rhetoric of Laughter (Rhetorical Philosophy & Theory) - Softcover

Davis, D. Diane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809322293 ISBN 13: 9780809322299

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Rhetoric and composition theory has shown a renewed interest in sophistic countertraditions, as seen in the work of such "postphilosophers" as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Hélène Cixous, and of such rhetoricians as Susan Jarratt and Steven Mailloux. As D. Diane Davis traces today’s theoretical interest to those countertraditions, she also sets her sights beyond them.

Davis takes a “third sophistics” approach, one that focuses on the play of language that perpetually disrupts the “either/or” binary construction of dialectic. She concentrates on the nonsequential third—excess—that overflows language’s dichotomies. In this work, laughter operates as a trope for disruption or breaking up, which is, from Davis’s perspective, a joyfully destructive shattering of our confining conceptual frameworks.

About this title

About the Author

D. Diane Davis is an assistant professor of rhetoric at the University of Iowa.

From the Back Cover

Rhetoric and composition theory has shown a renewed interest in sophistic countertraditions, as seen in the work of such "postphilosophers" as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Helene Cixous and of such rhetoricians as Susan Jarratt and Steven Mailloux. As D. Diane Davis traces today's theoretical interest to those countertraditions, she also sets her sights beyond them.

Davis takes a "third sophistics" approach, one that focuses on the play of language that perpetually disrupts the "either/or" binary construction of dialectic. She concentrates on the nonsequential third-excess-that overflows language's dichotomies. In this work, laughter operates as a trope for disruption or breaking up, which is, from Davis's perspective, a joyfully destructive shattering of our confining conceptual frameworks.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809322293
• ISBN 13: 9780809322299
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336