Discourses at Play

Provides rhetorical critics a new method, "rhetorical gameplay," for the evaluation of large-scale and real-world public events.

The field of rhetorical studies has yet to embrace the subject of gaming and play. While previous methods, such as dramatism, narrative analysis, fantasy theme, and more, are still powerful and useful as critical methods, we should continue to explore new frameworks for the analysis of public persuasion. There is huge potential in exploiting the vocabulary of gaming in our critical work. What is unique about this book is that it broadens our definition of a game to include large-scale and real-world public events, and allows for a new critical perspective on those very events.

The author argues that rhetorical events are games, and defines them as engagements among communicators (players) who employ persuasive strategies during their interactions with others (match) within a system of constraints (rules) that restrict or permit the achievement of goals (outcomes). The model, rhetorical gameplay, adds eight concepts for the critic to assess: the major persuasive actor(s) (ludic champion), their grasp of the rhetorical situation (ludic awareness), the major persuasive moment(s) (the ludic turn), the risk that invigorates or suppresses player action (ludic risk), fairness of the rules (ludic integrity), stability of those rules (ludic flexibility), what is gained and lost during the act of persuasion (the ludic bargain), and whether the outcomes are significant enough to influence external events (ludic transference). The model is tested with a textual examination of four large-scale rhetorical events: The Salem Witch Trials, the Covid Pandemic, Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Bombing of Hiroshima. Each of these critiques is carefully chosen to showcase a different dominant element (in order, players, rule, match, and outcome).