Managing Vulnerability: South Africa's Struggle for a Democratic Rhetoric (Studies in Rhetoric/Communication) - Hardcover

Book 27 of 69: Studies in Rhetoric & Communication

Marback, Richard; Marback, Richard C.

 
9781611170993: Managing Vulnerability: South Africa's Struggle for a Democratic Rhetoric (Studies in Rhetoric/Communication)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1611170990 ISBN 13: 9781611170993
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press, 2012

Synopsis

A detailed account of the struggle to cultivate connectedness out of the divisiveness of apartheid

In Managing Vulnerability, Richard C. Marback analyzes the tension surrounding the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa through a rhetorical lens. Marback studies the heart of South Africa's desire for reconciliation and contends that this goal could be achieved only through the creation of a language of vulnerability in which former enemies become open to the influence of each other, to the constraints of their respective circumstances, and to the prospects of a shared future. Through a series of informative case studies, Marback illustrates how the cultivation of openness and the management of vulnerability take shape through the circulation of artifacts, symbols, and texts that give empowering expression to virtues of connectedness over the temptations of individual autonomy.

Marback discusses the construction and impact of the narrative tours of Robben Island, the silencing of Robert Sobukwe, the debates over a proposed Freedom Monument, a brief gesture of ubuntu from Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela to Eugene de Kock, and the transformation of the title character in the film adaptation of the 1980 novel Tsotsi. Ultimately, Marback contends, finding a means to manage vulnerability is both the immediate success of and the ongoing challenge to South African democracy and is indicative of the nature of rhetoric in democracies in general and in contemporary civic life.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard C. Marback is a professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is the author of Plato's Dream of Sophistry.

From the Back Cover

A detailed account of the struggle to cultivate connectedness out of the divisiveness of apartheid

From the Inside Flap

A detailed account of the struggle to cultivate connectedness out of the divisiveness of apartheid

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
University of South Carolina Press
Publication date
2012
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1611170990
ISBN 13 
9781611170993
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
152