In Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time," I found the concept of time being tremendously important to rhetoric so interesting. It was somewhat of an enlightening but "duh" moment for me. Killingsworth explains time's importance to both classical rhetoric and modern rhetoric. Of classical rhetoric, he states "forensic speeches narrate past events with a view to influencing present decisions and judgements; epideictic speeches focus on an event or occasion in the present time; deliberative speeches propose future actions based on current trends." Of modern rhetoric, he states "reports narrate the past; instructions deal with actions in the present time of the reader; proposals make arguments for future actions." He then even expands upon the rhetorical keywords of kairos and exigence. Time plays an important role in these two. Kairos is all about the perfet timing to deliver your argument and the exigence of the situation is what drives your argument, which is driven by time. Is it urgent? Is it something that can be solved in the near future? The answer to this question will result in which genre of speech you are going to utilize.
I actually just dealt with this myself. A behavior of a certain friend of mine has been bothering me, but because it wasn't that serious, I've been putting off talking to her about it; I hadn't felt the urgency to put forth my argument with her. But today, something she did really set me off, but because a group of us were about to hang out, it wasn't the right timing to present my argument to her. Once I did present my argument, I made references to past events in the hopes that future events would not happen.
After reading Killingsworth, I realized how important timing really is, not just in rhetorical arguments but in every day life (where we actually deal with rhetoric on a daily basis, even within ourselves, and don't notice it).
The timing of this was perfect! The things discussed in these articles and on your blog are so relevant to me. My Rhetoric class has also recently talked about forensic, epideictic and deliberative rhetoric, and kairos. We made the connections from the classical rhetoric to a more modern rhetoric by linking forensic rhetoric to the TV show Law & Order, epideictic rhetoric to a eulogy at a funeral, and deliberative rhetoric to Aragorn's speech at the Black Gate in Lord of the Rings. Making these connections from classical rhetoric to a more modern rhetoric really makes it clearer in my mind. I really like your statement, "Kairos is all about the perfect timing to deliver your argument, and the exigence of the situation is what drives your argument, which is driven by time." This statement really points out just how important time is in rhetoric. Kairos involves so many different aspects of timing – the timing of choosing your argument, the timing of planning your argument, the timing of delivering your argument, when you deliver it, how much time you give between sentences, words, paragraphs – that it becomes almost a fourth leg on the rhetorical triangle (square?). I liked how your example was another way to connect classical rhetorical elements to our lives today; that really is the best way to learn something!
ReplyDeleteI think you make an excellent example of how Kairos played into effect of your own life in "choosing your battles." You brought insight into my understanding of the article on a different level. I didn't put it into a real life scenario outside of the historical examples given through the text. I like the way in which you gave a step by step analysis of how you used kairos and allowed me as the reader to grasp the understanding of your situation. I would have however expanded a little more past just the concepts of time with kairos and exigence. I would have maybe talked more about the urgency of having the conversation. How much did time really matter in your argument. Also, how does this affect rhetoric and continue to move forward other than keeping the topic of conversation from happening again. Overall i think you did an excellent job explaining your understanding and have helped me to develop a personal outlook on a modern day example.
ReplyDeleteI totally agreed with your example of kairos. We do use the term kairos in real life scenarios while trying to make decisions in our lives. In Killingsworth’s “Appeal to Time”, he uses references to several ideas of how time is represented through classical and modern rhetoric. I loved the fact that kairos could be seen in several readings in our class such as Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter to Birmingham. During the time of Dr. King’s letter this was a relevant time to speak of inequality of race. This is where kairos and exigence meet to show the urgency during this historical time. Timing is really important not just in rhetorical arguments but in our everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteMorgan,
ReplyDeleteWhat caught my eye in your post was when you mentioned his definition of modern rhetoric. "Reports narrate the past; instructions deal with actions in the present time of the reader; proposals make arguments for future actions." If there was one thing that I can connect with this and your knowledge of this as well, it would be that time is an appeal and that it is considered to be an identification. However, how does a speaker make it known to his audience that he wants to identify his claim and/or argument? With the help of Devoss and Ridolfo, practicing rhetorical velocity allows the speaker to become closer to his or her audience in delivering their speech. Because rhetorical velocity allows the speaker to think of all possible outcomes with time and delivery, it also gives the audience a sense of identification.