{"title":"Masked Meanings: COVID-19 and the Subversion of Stasis Hierarchy","authors":"G. Gordon, Ben Wetherbee","doi":"10.1080/07350198.2022.2109402","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Partisan rhetoric surrounding COVID-era face-masking has reshuffled traditional stasis hierarchy, allowing the middle stases of definition and quality, which emphasize epideictic motives of cultural affirmation, to supersede conjectural questions of medical efficacy. Viral images positioning masks as metonymic approximations of “authoritarianicity” and government overreach illustrate how right-wing masking rhetoric circumvents scientific concerns, instead rooting discourse in questions of cultural essence. Science communicators, in response, must embrace the inherently tropological and epideictic dimensions of the mask and work to recode the symbol as a metonym for citizenship and personal responsibility.","PeriodicalId":44627,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Rhetoric Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2022.2109402","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract Partisan rhetoric surrounding COVID-era face-masking has reshuffled traditional stasis hierarchy, allowing the middle stases of definition and quality, which emphasize epideictic motives of cultural affirmation, to supersede conjectural questions of medical efficacy. Viral images positioning masks as metonymic approximations of “authoritarianicity” and government overreach illustrate how right-wing masking rhetoric circumvents scientific concerns, instead rooting discourse in questions of cultural essence. Science communicators, in response, must embrace the inherently tropological and epideictic dimensions of the mask and work to recode the symbol as a metonym for citizenship and personal responsibility.
期刊介绍:
Rhetoric Review (RR), a scholarly interdisciplinary journal of rhetoric, publishes in all areas of rhetoric and writing and provides a professional forum for its readers to consider and discuss current topics and issues. The journal publishes manuscripts that explore the breadth and depth of the discipline, including history, theory, writing, praxis, philosophy, professional writing, rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, multiple literacies, technology, literature, public address, graduate education, and professional issues. Rhetoric Review also invites readers to contribute to the Burkean Parlor, a discourse forum for discussion of Rhetoric Review"s published articles, as well as professional issues. Essay reviews, commissioned by the editor, are included as a regular feature.