One example of something that represents Bitzer’s Rhetorical
Situation and Edbauer’s Rhetorical Ecology is Taylor Swift’s pop music album, 1989. A lot of what Bitzer and Edbauer
both talk about is the exigence of something.
Because Swift is an artist and needs to make money, in Bitzer’s way of
thought, the exigence of her album could be that she needs to appeal to a newer
audience with an album that is more pop-sounding than her previous ones. This
is Swift “discovering” an exigency, as Edbauer depicts Bitzer to do. Edbauer,
however, has a theory on exigencies that is not as rigid. From what I
understand, she claims that an exigency comes from a mix of connections between
people and things. Therefore, 1989’s
exigency could be that because Swift analyzed the way her music made people
feel, or that maybe many people were going through breakups, or that maybe
audience members were not responding well to the music that was out at the
time, she decided to make a new, inventive album.
Another example is the rise of rent at my apartment complex
for next year. According to Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation, the owners of the
complex, a company that owns many complexes in the area, recognized that the
buildings were becoming completely full each year. Therefore, the company
decided that it could make more money off of raising the rent amounts for each
floor plan. In Edbauer’s Rhetorical
Ecology, it is possible that the company recognized that other complexes in the
area were raising their prices and renters were just as eager to sign leases.
The company could have also realized that it was having a multitude of people
resign their leases, so it could afford to raise the price because the current
tenants must be happy living there.
Although Bitzer and Edbauer definitely have differences as
far as their theories on rhetoric are concerned, both of them can agree that a
piece of text needs an exigency, no matter what. Although their theories on
what exactly that exigency is may differ, one must exist. At this point in my studies in
rhetoric (which are limited to what I have learned in WEPO),
I agree with Edbauer more. I feel like Bitzer is very black and white when it
comes to the Rhetorical Situation, but Edbauer’s Rhetorical Ecology allows for
much more freedom as far as how everything is connected.
I really liked how you talked about Taylor Swift and related it to Bitzer by saying her new pop album was her finding her exigency. I thought it was a very unique way to show what exigency is and it definitely gave me a better understanding of it. I felt your two examples worked very well considering what you were having to give examples for.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you talked about Bitzer and Edbauer in a way that had them working together. A lot of us found two different examples and talked about them differently in relation to our prospective author, but you talked about examples from two differing perspective and I really enjoyed that. I also found it very interesting how you stated Taylor Swift's exigence to be money. Sometimes writers write for a grand purpose and sometimes it's simply for the money and I think that is an important thing to think about.
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