CFP: Dishonesty and/in Rhetoric (5/10/05; SAMLA, 11/4/05-11/6/05)

Call for Papers for a special session, Dishonesty and/in Rhetoric, for the
2005 SAMLA conference, November 4-6, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Americans are inundated with what would seem to be dishonest rhetoric in
all areas of life—from politicians on WMD and CEOs on insider trading,
through sports executives on trades and entertainers on affairs and
divorces, to employees on illnesses and reality show participants on
whatever keeps them on the show another week.

Since rhetoric is concerned with how to make a position more persuasive to
an audience, some rhetors make worse cases appear better through dishonest
means; some might even use the ancient sophists or postmodern theorists to
argue that, since truth and lies are relative, they should be free to use
whatever means they want in whatever ways offer the best chances for
success. However, others see rhetoric as the art of establishing warrants
that all parties do share in order to develop beliefs that all parties can
share. They argue that defining rhetoric as the art of lying effectively
is limited and misguided; further, they argue that using the sophists or
postmodernists to play fast and loose with truth and lies is a misreading
of these positions—even as they also admit that determining what is true
speech and what untrue is difficult and often contingent.

This special session looks for papers (either theoretical or applied) that
examine the relationship between the role that dishonesty might, or does,
or must play in rhetorical practice. Abstracts of 250 words of papers not
lasting longer than twenty minutes are due by May 10 to Martin Jacobi at
mjacobi_at_clemson.edu.

Those whose papers are accepted must become members of SAMLA by June 1 in
order to be listed in the 2005 convention program and to receive
pre-registration material and the 2005 convention program.

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Received on Mon Apr 11 2005 - 20:36:03 EDT