Monday, January 18, 2010

Neo-Aristotelian Criticism: The Basics

In this post, I will be discussing the basics of Neo-Aristotelian Criticism, and the elements of the five canons of rhetoric.

The text book defines “neo-Aristotelian criticism as “the first formal method of rhetorical criticism developed in the communication field.” Also called “traditional method of criticism.”

There are three basic steps in analyzing the artifact in rhetorical criticism.
1. Reconstructing the context in which the artifact occurred. Doing this helps find out how different components affect the rhetoric.
2. Application of the five canons to the artifact, which was divided in greek and roman times.
3. Assessing the impact of the artifact on the audience. A critic judges the effect of the rhetoric.

The 5 canons of rhetoric are invention (the location and creation of idea), organization (the arrangement of the speech), style (the language of the speech), memory (the mastery of the subject matter), and delivery (the voice and gestures in the presentation.)

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