Abstract
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholarship increasingly uses rhetorical theory as a method for analyzing contested meaning between communicants. However, the classical and social constructivist rhetorical theories typically used for analysis do not address the primary cause of contested meaning – relativism. Conversely, such theories often contribute to a dualistic worldview by utilizing internally imagined conceptual schemes for analyzing texts. This thesis proposes Thomas Kent’s paralogic rhetorical theory as an alternative method of analyzing CSR texts, and focuses on three common areas typically utilized in rhetorical analyses of CSR texts: text reception, the rhetorical situation, and genre. Where paradigmatic rhetorical theories typically describe rhetoric as an attempt to persuade an audience of meaning, Kent’s theory describes discourse as an interpretive process, where communicants attempt to produce universal meaning through rhetorical exchanges.
Date of publication
Spring 5-6-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2581
Committee members
Anett Jessop, Hui Wu, Matthew Kelly
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Recommended Citation
Penner, Donald E., "Thomas Kent's Paralogic Rhetoric as a Framework for Analyzing Corporate Social Responsibility Discourse" (2020). English Department Theses. Paper 24.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2581
Included in
Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Organizational Communication Commons, Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Public Relations and Advertising Commons, Rhetoric Commons, Technical and Professional Writing Commons