Greenberg (2002)

[anne mareck]

Hello!

First, let me introduce myself to the list. I'm a PhD student studying
Rhetoric, Discourse Analysis and Technical Communication and their varied
intersections. Hmmm...not sure what else, so I'll leave it at that!

The Greenberg piece was quite useful to me. I'm working two projects right
now: a CDA of a major retailer and a CDA of a retail product. The elements
of analysis that Greemberg mentioned are quite useful. From time to time I
see Flash animations, often overtly political messages but not always, that
seem to carry an immense rhetorical power in their short discourse. One site
in particular I can think of off the top of my head is http://jibjab.com
"This Land"

Greenberg's piece gave me a way to understand how that influence is
configured. The ideas of condensation, combination, opposition,
domestication and transference that he delineates are useful tools for
dissection and examination of the way meaning is made in these short, punchy
communications.

The idea of "opposition" is especially interesting to me, as we seem to be
in a time, in the USA at least, where politicians deliver reductive messages
to the public that seem to be swallowed whole, with little reflection.
Binaries are easier to understand, gray areas are removed, and the world can
be comfortably reduced to good & evil, right & wrong.

The idea of "transference" causes me a bit of discomfort. I am most familiar
with "transference" as a psychological term--is it is commonly used in CDA?
I wonder about borrowing highly specialized terminology from other
disciplines without historicizing the term and resituating it in the newly
envisioned context.

Well, that's my .02 for now on Greenberg. 

I'm enjoying the discussion on this list. What a great find!

Take care,

Anne in Michigan



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Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 7:50 PM
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Subject: Greenberg (2002)

Josh Greenberg's "Framing and Temporality in Political
Cartoons
" (2002) was a stimulating paper. Greenberg hypothesized
that the following five rhetorical devices affect the
contents of political cartoons. The first four rhetorical
devices are formulated by Morris (1993). (For details,
please see p.187)

Condensation--compresses disconnected or complexly related
events to a common, singular frame.

Combination--constructs and organizes various elements or
ideas from different domains with numerous and perhaps
conflicting meanings.

Domestication--distant events remote from the everyday
experience(s) of the reader are translated into concrete
happenings that can be experienced as close and familiar.

Transference--absolves the cartoon's actors of their
absurd actions or commentary by displacing blame to
another, normally non-visible, actor.


Greenberg examined whether or not these rhetorical devices
were used in two political cartoons in Canadian
newspapers. He found that at least two of the rhetorical
processes, transference and combination, were at work, but
not all of them. Greenberg is modest, recognizing the
limitation of his study.  Even so I was intrigued by this
result.

Do you like political cartoons?
Personally, I usually skip political cartoons when I read
newspapers in English probably because I feel these
cartoons are too difficult for a person like me, who is a
nonnative speaker of  English, to enjoy.  Although
Greenberg did not suggest such a thing, I think these five
rhetorical devices can be used to explain
miscommunications between native speakers and non-native
speakers. But all native speakers do not always receive
the cartoons the same way, either. The five devices will
be used to explain individual differences, too.

Have a nice weekend.

Best wishes,

Noriko Sugimori