The Metaphor Metaphor and the Self Analogy
Richard Rorty on Rhetoric and Cultural Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52610/rhs.v28i89.319Keywords:
Rorty, change, metaphor, utopiaAbstract
Rhetoricians often assume that one important task of rhetorical studies is to provide support for cultural change. It is not so clear, however, what the discipline has to show for in this area. For this reason, I suggest that rhetoric should take a greater interest in the work of Richard Rorty, who not only has an obvious affinity with the rhetorical discipline, but who also provides a sophisticated theory of cultural change. I focus first on Rorty’s metaphor metaphor, which insists that change is something strange, abnormal, and, strictly speaking, meaningless. The metaphor metaphor productively challenges some of the rhetorical discipline’s ideas about agency and control, but ultimately, it is troubled. Instead, the rhetorical discipline has more to gain by turning to Rorty’s self-analogy, where change happens gradually, through juxtaposition, comparison, and marginalization of the differences between ourselves and others.
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