American Food Rhetoric

Abstract

SynonymsAgricultural mythology; Food identity; Food metaphor;Food politics; Food tropesIntroductionDefinitions of rhetorichave evolved over the course of Western intellectual history. Asa result, understandings of this civic art can range from thestrategic manipulation of symbolic forms for persuasive ends toa constitutive process that is central to the formation ofidentity. In its infancy, the Aristotelian conception ofrhetoric as a persuasive appeal deployed by speakers to gain theadvocacy of an audience was highly influential (Kennedy 1991).From this traditional standpoint, rhetoric can be summarized asa process whereby an advocate meets an external challenge with aspecific set of symbolic appeals, overcomes situationalconstraints, and achieves personal and communal objectives(Bitzer 1992). This narrow view of rhetoric began to expand as aresult of theorists such as Kenneth Burke, who positioned it atthe center of human symbolic commerce, suggesting that it playeda s ...