(Re)Arranging Regional Rhetorics

Abstract

This chapter builds from an orientation to emergent rhetorical moments through the concepts of arrangement and region. After tracing arrangement through classical and contemporary rhetorical theory, and noting the way the canon becomes affiliated with invention in theories of rhetoric and materiality, the chapter turns to one example of rhetoric as a regional arrangement: a prairie foraging demonstration on the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie. In addition to mapping the materials invented by the foraging demonstration’s arrangements, the chapter remains critical of efforts to develop a sense of spatial authenticity: if all rhetorics are regional, then their constitutive materials inherently come from, and are on their way to, elsewhere. The chapter concludes by examining the relationship between rhetorical events as regional arrangements and processes of rhetorical production.