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5 Examples of Rhetorical Art
What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric has been defined throughout history from Plato, to Aristotle, to today’s scholars. Aristotle felt it to be a means of persuasion using pathos, ethos, and logos. According to The Online Etymology Dictionary: (2015), rhetoric means “that of ‘literary production.’" Therefore, one can experience rhetorical music, literature, and art, in any modality, as composition meant to persuade.
The philosopher and minister from the 1700s, George Campbell asserted, “"[Rhetoric] is that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end. The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will"(as qtd. In Eidenmuller). Certainly, this might be an artist’s favorite definition of rhetoric.
The scientific definition leans more towards Stephen Toulmin’s Method of Argumentation (1958) which incorporates six elements: claim, warrant, grounds, backing, qualifier, and rebuttal (104). A shortened, and easier to understand version is offered in a lesson by high school teacher. Alexander Clarkson, (2011) entitled “Introducing the Toulmin Model.”
In these five samples of rhetorical art (below), “readers,” students and educators may choose to analyze them through Aristotle’s approach, Toulmin’s elements, or even through the lens of an 18th century philosopher. What is constant throughout the five models is that the author or authors argue their point by means of art literacy. taking a stance and trying to convince, influence, or simply persuade the reader to think about their point of view.
Banksy
Street artist Banksy, known for his graffiti-like street art that comments on everything from the Gaza Strip to the need for freedom, has found a new medium. He calls it “vandalism art.” This is where he purchases a copy of a work by someone else (often at a second hand store) and he changes it. This painting was originally called “The Singing Butler” by Jack Vettriano. It presented a man and a woman formally dressed, except the woman was barefoot. They dance under a grey sky on the beach while a butler and a maid brace themselves against the wind and hold umbrellas. Vettriano also painted a similar scene. Called “Dancer in Emerald” where the color of the woman’s gown was changed and the maid was removed from the scene.
Banksy’s version, "Dancing Butler On A Toxic Beach With Crude Oil” changes the familiar pleasant scene into a strong statement about oil spills. The couple keeps dancing, oblivious to the puddles of oil on the beach, oblivious to the two men in hazmat gear in the process of rolling a drum of oil off the beach, and oblivious to the oil barge in the far background. The butler represents the working man, dutifully doing his job while oil spills out onto the beach. By Banksy using a copy of a popular painting as his canvas and adding the chaos and toxicity of the oil spill, he makes meaning of how people use fashionable art, oblivious to the world around them. Authors at ICanvas (2015) comment about Banksy’s message of cultural decay resulting in an ennui that affects everyone. He “deconstructs the iconographies of the mainstream” attempting to persuade the reader to stop dancing and do something.
This painting uses the rhetorical approach to convey a standpoint and to try and affect the reader. The argument is clear.
happenings at the club “served as a barometer of public opinion.” Although Sally Bowles, the protagonist, revels in the decadence of a 1930 Berlin, she and almost all the characters seem blind to the fact that the Third Reich is just around the corner. Chen posits that the story’s characters, like the rest of the world, refused to see how,” the Nazis used the decadence and moral decline of 1930 Berlin to come to power.”
One very poignant moment in the movie was when young blonde headed blue-eyed Nazi soldiers stood up, one by one, to join in the song, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” In that one, incredibly powerful anthem, the whole Nazi ideology was explained. There were no scenes needed to understand how committed the Nazi army was. The song said fathoms. In regards to rhetoric, the emcee, uses satire, presenting many points of persuasion. Only he seems to see the shadow of Nazism covering Berlin. In this video, he sings the song, “If you could see her through my eyes.” It is commentary and a foretelling of the anti-Semitism that would soon invade society. Like the emcee and his pretence that his unusal girlfriend was perfectly normal, people who were married to Jews in Berlin, during the rise of the Third Reich, had to pretend that, likewise, everything was normal. A subject of much debate, the whispered caveat at the end of the song tells the argument in six words.
Huffington Post author, Faisal Al-Juburi (2014) sums up this story’s rhetoric and how 85 years after it was first written, it still has meaning:
There are warnings scattered throughout of the malice that is about to descend upon us, but, in true Sally form, we ignore until we are trapped, witnessing the implications of a willful ignorance that we made a conscious decision to espouse. Upon visiting the rebirth of this revival a few weeks ago, I had a confidence in knowing that, as global citizens, we are too well-informed today to allow human rights atrocities of such a grand scale to occur. Then, one word gravitated to the forefront of my mind: Syria.
What is interesting to note is that the rhetoric of Cabaret sponsored this author’s rhetorical statement.
Cabaret
Originally written as a book in 1939, Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood, became the play: I am a Camera in 1952, adapted by John Van Druten. In 1966, with music by Kander and Ebb, the musical Cabaret opened. In 1972, Cabaret, the movie musical starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey shocked audiences by turning the usual corny yet entertaining movie musical into a story with political undertones, anti-Semitism, characters that were openly gay, abortion, and sexual freedom. Now, a second revival opened on Broadway last year (Chen, n.d.). The thread that connects these quite different renditions is the powerful point to be made.
Although there are subplots, the main story takes place at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin. Author Chen (n.d.) avers that the
Anis Mojgami
The Slam Poetry movement began in the late 1990s with the intention of revitalizing poetry. This type of performance poetry involves competitions either solo or in teams with the audience serving as the judge. According to web authors from Poetry.org (2014), “The work is judged as much on the manner and enthusiasm of its performance as its content or style, and many slam poems are not intended to be read silently from the page.” However, slam poetry is also considered a type of poem. The mission of Poetry Slam Inc (2015), gives more insight into this unique art literacy. These spoken word experiences will: “build audience participation, stimulate creativity, awaken minds, foster education, inspire mentoring, encourage artistic statement and engage communities worldwide in the revelry of language.”
In this video, spoken word poet, Anis Mojgani, a “two-time National Poetry Slam Champion, TEDx speaker, and author of three poetry collections” performs “Shake the Dust” (Mojgani, n.d.). The poem itself is laced with rhetorical devices, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, and repetition. The message is to be yourself; shake off what others think of you, or call you, or how they treat you; shake off the negativism that follows you around, shake it all off, open the door, and embrace life. The audience identifies with this poem because within all those words Mojgani spits out, as if they have energy all their own, one can see his or her self. In an interview with Joseph D. Osel (2007) from the Commonline Journal, Mojgani said the following:
What Slam does that puts it into a movement is that there is fire there. There's an urgency. Because it is within the confines of a competition, it makes people make decisions, both as artists and audience members. And by putting that power into a person’s hand, it makes someone feel that they matter, that they are an active member in what is going on around them and that their voice and opinion count for something. Slam also engages the audience in a way that open mic or readings may not. People want to be entertained, and when there are things on the line, at stake (even if arbitrary things), then people are automatically more interested and more invested in what they are experiencing. And if that’s the case then the poets, the poems, the poetry, is able to work more effectively on the people receiving it, thus having a larger effect on the society it’s inside of creating a catalyst for change. Becoming a social literary movement.
What especially makes this argument formidable is the fact that it is a positive message. Moreover, one might not take away as much by merely reading the words. The performance, plus the words, plus the meaning it has for both the artist and the audience give this art form a unique and powerful means of persuasion.
Tyce Diorio
Melissa Sandvig
& Ade Obayomi
This performance from a 2009 episode of “So You Think You Can Dance” says more than mere words can explain. Choreographer Tyce Diorio’s choice of music, “This Women’s Work,” by Maxwell sets the tone for the piece. Dancers Sandvig and Obayomi show the significance of the piece more through skillful use of Aristotle’s pathos (an appeal to emotion) than through their amazing dance abilities. Through the movement he created, Diorio underlines the importance of friendship and the journey that accompanies having breast cancer. The connection the dancers have with each other, with the music, and with the message they convey strengthens Diorio’s concept.. Additionally, the choreographer establishes a dance metaphor by using the trust the female dancer has in the strength and ability of the male dancer in order to
catch her and hold her up; this represents an affirmation that cancer sufferers can and should lean on their loved ones to support them through difficult times.
The reaction of the judges demonstrates that this rhetorical piece had great meaning. The idea that the dance would affect the judges so deeply and that it could, likewise, move millions of people who might relate to Diorio’s message and also benefit by the performance, shows the importance and the power of dance rhetoric.
Glory:
John Legend & Common
This multimedia presentation by Paramount Pictures may be a trailer for the movie Selma (which is also rhetorical art), but the combination of the message in the song, “Glory” written by John Legend and rapper Common, and the historical significance conveyed by the clips from the movie, argue for mankind to know that the fight for racial equality has not ended, and the glory of which Martin Luther King Jr. spoke has not yet been reached. The song, laced with rhetorical devices, could certainly be examined under Toulmin’s microscope. It also has Aristotle’s big three: logos, pathos, and ethos. The argument is loud and clear. Author Pete Hammond (2015) wrote: “In writing the song, … Common and Legend invoke current events, because they see the film as a mirror of what’s happening today.” This makes the
song and the video especially relevant. Hammond noted that Common ‘s inspiration grew from Legend’s Chorus:
One day, when the glory comes
It will be ours, it will be ours
Oh, one day, when the war is won
We will be sure, we will be here sure
Oh, glory, glory
Oh, glory, glory glory (John Legend…, n.d.)
Listening to Legend’s lyrics, Common felt the call to glory was significant now. Mentioning Ferguson and “Now we right the wrongs in history” sends a strong message. Legend commented, beginning with a quote by Nina Simone, a singer and civil rights activist in the 60s: “She said, ‘It’s the artists’ duty to reflect the times they live in,’ and so,” Legend asserted,” with this song we wanted to pay tribute to the important roles that all the people play in Selma, but we also wanted to reflect the time that we live in”(as ctd in Hammond, 2015). Cultural literacy plays a big part in this song. Again, one can see the relevance that rhetorical art facilitates in bringing current issues to light, and how it gets people thinking and perhaps acting on the message being expressed.