2

Vatz

Dr. Katherine Heenan

English 472

Spring 2007

March 27, 2007

Vatz, Richard. "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation," Philosophy and Rhetoric 6:3 (1973): 154-161.

Writing in response to Bitzer and arguing that

·  Meaning is not intrinsic in events, facts, people or “situations,” nor are facts “publicly observable.”

·  We learn facts and events through someone’s communicating them to us

·  Rhetors translate chosen information into meaning in an act of creativity and interpretation

·  "No situation can have a nature independent of the perception of its interpreter or independent of the rhetoric with which he chooses to characterize it” (226).

·  No situation is separate from interpretation.

·  Since the speaker chooses his or her own discourse, a situation is based upon that speaker's point of view or perception.

·  Vatz states that a situation becomes an exigence because it is named as such.

Three key components to the myth:

·  First, rhetors create the situation.

·  Second, the rhetor is responsible for what he chooses to make salient.

·  Third, when a rhetor fails to address a situation, it can go unnoticed even though it may require attention. The situation itself cannot construct the meaning alone. It requires the interpretation of the rhetor to communicate and produce the meaning.

Meaning-context relationship

Bitzer: "virtually no utterance is fully intelligible unless meaning-context are understood"

Vatz: "meaning is not discovered in situations, but created by rhetors"

Is rhetorical situation determinate?

Bitzer: Determinate: "it is the situation which calls for the discourse into existence"

Vatz: Indeterminate: "the very choice of what facts or events are relevant is a matter of pure arbitration"

Exigence

Bitzer: "exigence strongly invites utterance "

Vatz: "utterance strongly invites exigence"

Fitting response

Bitzer: "the situation controls the rhetorical response"

Vatz: "the rhetoric controls the situational response"

Implications for rhetoric

·  If meaning is viewed as intrinsic to situations, rhetorical study becomes parasitic to philosophy, poly sci and whatever other discipline can inform us as to what the “real” situation is

·  If, on the other hand, meaning is viewed as a consequence of rhetorical creation, your paramount concern will be with how and by whom symbols create the reality to which people react—rhetoric becomes of utmost import

·  If we accept Bitzer’s view that “the presence of rhetorical discourse obviously indicates the presence of a rhetorical situation, then we ascribe little responsibility to the rhetor with respect to what she has chosen to give salience.

·  On the other hand, if we view the communication of an event as a chose, interpretation, and translation, the rhetor’s responsibility is of supreme concern

·  To view rhetoric as a creation of reality or salience rather than a reflector of reality increases the rhetor’s moral responsibility