Lloyd F. Bitzer - The Rhetorical Situation Flashcards

Flashcards covering key definitions, constituents, and concepts from Lloyd F. Bitzer's essay 'The Rhetorical Situation'.

How does Lloyd F. Bitzer formally define a rhetorical situation?

A complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.

What are the three constituents present in any rhetorical situation prior to the creation and presentation of discourse?

The exigence, the audience to be constrained in decision and action, and the constraints which influence the rhetor and can be brought to bear upon the audience.

How does Bitzer define an exigence in a situation?

An imperfection marked by urgency; a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, or a thing which is other than it should be.

What specific condition makes an exigence rhetorical rather than non-rhetorical?

An exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when that positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse.

How is a rhetorical audience defined in contrast to a body of mere hearers or readers?

A rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change.

What are constraints in a rhetorical situation?

Persons, events, objects, and relations that are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence.

What two main classes of constraints does Bitzer outline, referencing Aristotle?

Those originated or managed by the rhetor and his method (artistic proofs) and other constraints in the situation that may be operative (inartistic proofs).

What example from anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski does Bitzer use to illustrate a primitive model of a context of situation?

A party of fishermen in the Trobriand Islands whose functional speech and exclamations are embedded in and dependent upon the course of their fishing activity.

Why does Bitzer classify rhetorical work as pragmatic?

Because it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself, functioning ultimately to produce action or change in the world rather than serving as an instrument of reflection.

What characterizes a 'fitting response' to a rhetorical situation?

It is a response that meets the requirements established by the situation, which dictates the purpose, theme, matter, and style of the utterance.

What four non-real situations does Bitzer distinguish from a real or genuine rhetorical situation?

Sophistic situations (contrived exigence), spurious situations (result of error or ignorance), fantasy (imaginary objects of a mind at play), and fictive rhetorical situations (situations created within a novel or play).

What typically occurs to a rhetorical situation after it evolves to its propitious moment?

Most rhetorical situations decay after that moment, although some persist indefinitely or recur due to nature or convention.