blog post 9

            Bitzer defines the rhetorical situation as, “A complex of persons, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence, which can be removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.”  The presence of rhetorical discourse indicates the presence of a rhetorical situation. Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality by the creation of discourse, which changes reality through the mediation of thought. The verbal responses to the demands established by this situation are as functional essential as the physical responses. A rhetorical question consists of an audience, a set of constraints to the situation, and exigencies. Exigence is “an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be.” Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation, the situation that identifies amounts to an invitation to make and express discourse.

            For example, if we took one week of the 1964 presidential campaign, there would be several significant campaigns that would change the campaign. Let’s say that Khrushchev and the USSR dissolved, China exploded a nuclear bomb and The Labour party beat the Conservative party in England. One would think that Lyndon Johnson would discuss these events in a speech. His response would be appropriate. But if Johnson talked about his childhood or baseball, critics would say that his speech was the wrong response. He failed to hit his mark. He failed to provide the proper response in the rhetoric situation.