Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2017

Abstract

Image restoration strategies and apologia have been used for years to explain how speakers engage in verbal self-defense. Kategoria has expanded our understanding of apologia when rhetors counter with an accusation to explain or justify their behavior. In recent years, however, a new tactic has emerged in apologia in which speakers admit to the transgression but then accuse the media of invading their privacy by stalking their families. Following the accusation, these speakers draw a boundary with the media and the audience regarding what the media can and cannot do. This strategy is unique because the rhetor does not attempt to create a scapegoat. The rhetor takes full responsibility for the transgression, sometimes even taunting the media to “come after me,” but then demands the media leave their family alone. This strategy of bringing a charge and drawing a boundary is absent in current image restoration literature. This essay will identify this new rhetorical posture as apodiorizo.

Comments

Originally published in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Review Vol. 3 No. 5; October 2017.

http://www.ijhssrnet.com/uploades/volumes/1598808589.pdf

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