An Introduction to Rhetorical Terms

An important part of the vocabulary of cultural

criticism and theory today is in the rhetorical terms

we read and write, reason and refute by. These are

the means by which we tell and receive the stories

that explain the world. This book is divided into three

sections, the first dealing with classical and

traditional figures (such assimile, metaphor and

metonomy), the second dealing with non-figures and

near-tropes (like signs and symbols), the final

section of the book devoted to new figures, and to

rhetoric and tropology today. This last section

familiarizes the reader with many new rhetorical

terms employed in post-structural criticism and

theory (terms like bricolage, differend and

differance). Through the study of rhetoric "old and

new" one learns how meaning is made. It is through

that kind of understanding one gets to decide what

to mean.