In
the article by Lloyd Bitzer, he focused on rhetorical situation. He explains
that it is a type of situation, no different from a dangerous, humiliating, or
ethical situation, that depend on specific circumstances to define it; also it
produces change by influencing the decision and action of persons who function
as mediators of change. In the reading, Bitzer defines rhetoric as “a mode of
altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by
the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of
thought and action”.
Moreover,
a rhetorical situation is made up of three constituents. The first component
that makes up a rhetorical situation is audience. Rhetoric is dependent on a
situation and audience in order for it to exist. For example the tree that
Bitzer talked about “A tree does not obtain its character-as- tree from the
soil, but rhetorical discourse. It does obtain its character-as-rhetorical from
the situation, which generates it.
In
addition to situation, another component of rhetoric is Exigence, which is
defined as “capable of positive modification when positive modification
requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse”. The situation has to be
urgent or important enough for people to want to talk about. It has to invite a
response to fit that specific situation. For example, as Bitzer says “Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address was a most fitting response to the relevant features of the
historic context which invited its existence and gave it rhetorical significance”.
If the response does not fit it is insignificant, and it becomes anything other
than rhetoric.
Lastly,
the last component is constrains. Constrains are the persons, events, objects,
and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to
constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence. An example of a constrain
is a tradition, or attitude.
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