Barbara Biesecker is a leading rhetorical theorist whose work delves into the intricate connections between rhetoric, philosophy, and social change. She is particularly preoccupied with the concept of rhetorical agency, exploring how discourse functions as a force for societal transformation and the conditions that enable or impede it. Biesecker draws heavily on poststructuralist philosophy, psychoanalysis, and feminist theory, applying these lenses to concrete historical instances to illuminate rhetoric's role in shaping our reality. Her critical approach offers profound insights into the mechanisms of power and resistance in the contemporary world.
Popular Memory in the Rise of the Ethnonationalist State
The book delves into the transformation of World War II's portrayal in popular culture from the mid-1980s onward, highlighting its role in addressing a crisis in American identity. It examines how these cultural narratives sought to restore social equilibrium during a time of upheaval, reflecting broader societal changes and the need for a unifying historical narrative.
"Rhetoric, Materiality, and Politics explores the relationship between rhetoric's materiality and the social world in the late modern political context. Taking as their point of departure a reprint of Michael Calvin McGee's 1982 call to reconceptualize rhetoric as the palpable +experience; of sociality, the authors in this volume grapple anew with the role of communication practices in contemporary collective life. Drawing upon the work of Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida, these twelve original essays supplement, extend, and challenge McGee's position, collectively advocating on behalf of a shift in theoretical and critical attention from rhetorical materialism to rhetoric's materiality." --Book Jacket.