Abstract

Paper This article, Rhetorical situation by Blitzer talks about rhetorical situation. The writes the article because he wants to know what is a rhetorical situation? He wants to know the nature of the situation in which speakers and writers create rhetorical discourse. How should such a context be described? What are the characteristics of such a situation? Why are they are called rhetoric In the first place? This the author needs to know the context of a situation which lead to a rhetorical discourse and for this he sets the aforementioned thesis.

According to the author of the article rhetoric is very situational. This doesn’t imply that understanding a speech necessarily means understanding the context in which the speech is delivered. However the author argues that it is impossible to comprehend a speech unless its context and utterance are understood. This is true of both rhetorical and non-rhetorical discourse. The author draws various analogies with a rhetorical situation. He feels that a rhetorical is analogous to a moral action. We call an act moral because it is performed in a certain situation of a certain kind. Similarly, a work is rhetorical because it is the result of a situation of a certain kind.
In an imaginary world, there will only be communication as argued world over but no rhetoric. This is because exigencies will not erupt. In our own world, however, rhetorical exigencies are bound to crop up.
The video that was provided to me was John Kennedy’s speech on Martin Luther King’ speech. The speech demonstrates the rhetorical situation explained by Bitzer in his article. The speech is a well used example of rhetoric in public relations. Its purpose was to make the audience feel that Americans need not worry about being discriminated on the basis of their religion, ethnic and cultural back ground. The speech is a very well placed example of a rhetorical situation as explained by Bitzer. The context of the situation demanded this speech by John F Kennedy. As explained by Bitzer exigency is a very important constituent of any rhetorical situation. An exigency is considered to be an imperfection and is ear marked by urgency. It is more or less a defeat, an obstacle, something that is waiting to be done and a thing which is other than what is should be. The situation in which Kennedy made the speech was ear-marked by an emergency. Thus is was a fitting response given the circumstances and the background under which the speech was delivered.