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The Sensory Modes of Animal Rhetorics: A Hoot in the Light presents the latest research in animal perception and cognition in the context of rhetorical theory. Alex C. Parrish explores the science of animal signaling that shows human and nonhuman animals share similar rhetorical strategies-such as communicating to manipulate or persuade-which suggests the vast impact sensory modalities have on communication in nature. The book demonstrates new ways of seeing humans and how we have separated ourselves from, and subjectified, the animal rhetor. This type of cross-species study allows us to trace the origins of our own persuasive behaviors, providing a deeper and more inclusive history of rhetoric than ever before.
List of contents
Introduction: A Hoot in the Light.- Adaptive Rhetoric: A Biocultural Paradigm for the Study of Persuasion.- Challenges to the Cross-Species Study of Rhetoric.- Information Sharing, Deceit, and Manipulation.- The Audio-Visual Norm.- Tactile Persuasion (Haptics).- Gustatory and Olfactory Rhetorics.- Thermoception.- Electroreception.- Echolocation-. A Brief History of Rhetorical Theory's Role in Human Exceptionalism.- The Study of Animal Rhetorics as 'Awareness Raising'.- Future Directions for the Cross-Species Study of Persuasion.
About the author
Alex C. Parrish is Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication at James Madison University, USA. His previous books include
Adaptive Rhetoric: Evolution, Culture, and the Art of Persuasion (2013) and
Rhetorical Animals: Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion (2017)
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