Clockwork Rhetoric: The Language and Style of Steampunk - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496809750 ISBN 13: 9781496809759

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2016

Synopsis

This unique book explores how the aesthetic and cultural movement “Steampunk” persuades audiences and wins new acolytes. Steampunk is an aesthetic style grounded in the Victorian era, in clothing and accoutrements modeled on a heightened and hyper-extended age of steam. In addition to its modeling of attire and other symbolic trappings, what is most distinctive is its adherents' use of a machined aesthetic based on steam engines and early electrical machinery―gears, pistons, shafts, wheels, induction motors, clockwork and so forth.

Precursors to steampunk can be found in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. The imagery of the American West contributed to the aesthetic―revolvers, locomotives, and rifles of the late nineteenth century. Among young people, steampunk has found common aesthetic cause with Goth style. Examples from literature and popular culture include William Gibson's fiction, China Miéville's novels, the classic film Metropolis, and the BBC series Doctor Who. This volume recognizes that steampunk, a unique popular culture phenomenon, presents a prime opportunity for rhetorical criticism.

Steampunk's art, style, and narratives convey complex social and political meanings. Chapters in Clockwork Rhetoric explore topics ranging from jewelry to Japanese anime to contemporary imperialism to fashion. Throughout, the book demonstrates how language influences consumers of steampunk to hold certain social and political attitudes and commitments.

About this title

About the Author

Barry Brummett is Charles Sapp Centennial Professor in Communication and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is author of A Rhetoric of Style and Rhetorical Homologies: Form, Culture, Experience.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496809750
• ISBN 13: 9781496809759
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Brummett Barry