Signs of protest rhetoric

From Logos to logistics in Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

Bibliographic Data

ID9237133
AuthorsAndrew Culp (Whitman College, corresponding author), Kevin Kuswa (University of South Carolina)
Year2016
Volume102
Issue2
Pages150-165
Publication date2016-04-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00335630.2016.1154595
OpenAlexW2308307660
LanguageEN
References cited7

Our paper conceptualizes protest rhetoric in order to theorize the underlying relationship between communication and subjectivity. We do this by highlighting how rhetorical protest challenges the sovereignty of voice. Our argument is that Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses is an example of a sign that protests. To make this argument, we use a materialist method from media studies that simultaneously examines the formal capacities of a sign that protests and maps its historical transformation. Our analysis opens with the two prevailing accounts of Luther's theses: disputation and dissemination. We extend both disputation and dissemination by placing them in a “universal history” of protest rhetoric that grounds many accepted critical rhetorical theories in specific systems of representation. Drawing together our findings, we conclude by urging the replacement of logos and logocentrism with the logistics of protest rhetoric in order to link together disputation and dissemination as a mechanism for both change and subjection

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Linguistics · Logos Bible Software · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics) · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sign (mathematics) · Sociology · Sovereignty · Theology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Media and Politics

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