Rhetoric in Popular Culture

Barry Brummett is the Charles Sapp Centennial Professor in Communication Emeritus of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1978 and taught at Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin before coming to the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, retiring in 2022. Brummett has authored, coauthored, or edited numerous articles, scholarly essays, and books, including Rhetoric of Style, Clockwork Rhetoric: The Language and Style of Steampunk, Contemporary Apocalyptic Rhetoric, Techniques of Close Reading, Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics, and The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics. His research pursuits include the rhetoric of popular culture, epistemology, and the theories of Kenneth Burke.

"This is an outstanding guide to rhetorical criticism for beginning students. It nicely balances the student′s need for structure with arecognition that criticism is not like baking a cake--it is the best thing that I have ever used to teach criticism."

• PART 1 • THEORYChapter 1 • Rhetoric and the Rhetorical TraditionChapter 2 • Rhetoric and Popular CultureChapter 3 • Rhetorical Methods in Critical StudiesChapter 4 • Varieties of Rhetorical Criticism: INTERVENTION-UnderstandingChapter 5 • Varieties of Rhetorical Criticism: UNDERSTANDING-InterventionPART 2 • APPLICATIONChapter 6 • Paradoxes of Personalization: Race Relations in MilwaukeeChapter 7 • Notes from a Texas Gun ShowChapter 8 • Simulational Selves, Simulational Culture in Groundhog DayChapter 9 • Jumping Scale in Steampunk: One Gear Makes You Larger, One Duct Makes You SmallChapter 10 • The Bad Resurrection in American Life and Culture