‘Attitude Matters’ – Attitude Expressions as Means of Persuasion

Abstract

Rhetorical criticism refers primarily to studying and critically analyzing explicit expressions of actors in rhetorical situations: arguments, stylistic approaches, visual messages, etc. It can also refer to additionally mapping a more implicit, unspoken and elusive level of implications, for instance, as well as underlying values and premises. This article presents a discussion on yet another elusive but often decisive communication level that has received little attention within the study of rhetoric, namely communication attitudes and how they manifest themselves, verbally as well as non-verbally. Within a rhetoric context, Kenneth Burke discusses the concept of attitude in interesting but undeveloped lines of reasoning. He suggests that his own model of dramatism, the pentad (Act, Scene, Agent, Agency, Purpose), be complemented with attitude as a sixth element. Burke seems to even see attitudes as the core of rhetorical, symbolic action. In this article, in relation to Burke but also to Michael Billig, a line of thought is developed regarding attitudes and attitude expressions as rhetorical means, that is communicative factors that can certainly be unconscious but can also be chosen just like other rhetorical strategies can.