{"id":212,"date":"2015-08-25T01:34:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T01:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/?page_id=212"},"modified":"2020-01-27T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T15:46:46","slug":"pathos-practice1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/courses\/rhe-330e-pathos\/197-2\/pathos-practice1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathetic Appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle described ways a rhetor might stir an audience&#8217;s feelings, including these two:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Enargeia\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>involves vivid description, a bringing before the eyes or actualization, a way of speaking or writing that makes the lifeless living through metaphor, especially\u00a0<em>striking<\/em>\u00a0or unfamiliar metaphor. One of the most effective means of pathetic appeal,\u00a0e<em>nargeia\u00a0<\/em>gives the listener or reader a sense that s\/he is there, experiencing what is being described. Moving personal narratives that turn an abstraction into something palpable and present accomplish this. Aristotle didn\u2019t talk about images, obviously, but their ability to <em>show<\/em> can be extremely powerful. Aristotle focuses in on the power of <em>active<\/em>\u00a0metaphors to accomplish this goal. Enargeia often involves personification and\/or ethopoeia.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Personification<\/strong>\u00a0(prosopopoeia) involves granting human-like qualities and perhaps voice to something you\u2019re describing that doesn\u2019t really have those qualities: you might suggest that your new iPad is calling to you or winking at you, or you may represent someone who has died as if she were present, etc. (\u201cThe ground is thirsty,\u201d \u201cthe light dances across the water,\u201d etc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ethopoeia<\/strong>\u00a0(character portrayal) involves vividly depicting someone\u2019s physical characteristics or personality. Sometimes involves exaggerating or mocking negative characteristics, but can also involve impersonating singular but endearing traits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using\u00a0<strong>emotionally\u00a0charged language and delivery<\/strong>\u2014showing signs yourself of the very emotion you hope to arouse in your audience. Actors win awards for their ability to make you feel what their character is feeling by <em>performing<\/em> it for you. Exclamation points or ellipses can be ways to convey emotion through punctuation. In a verbal address, the rhetor\u2019s voice can demonstrate the emotion s\/he hopes to arouse in the audience.<\/p>\n<p>But almost anything can function as a pathetic appeal, via any media, and you&#8217;re presented with them all the time. <strong>Ambiance<\/strong> is important, too: every context has a kind of mood. The mood of a legal proceeding&#8211;say, the impeachment hearings this afternoon&#8211;will <em>feel<\/em> very different than the mood of a romantic dinner or a party. Music can make you feel happy, sad, relaxed, anxious. It can evoke excitement or dread&#8230; But back to Aristotle&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Aristotle presents pathetic appeals as a two-step process:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>the rhetor offers something to arouse, intensify, or change the audience&#8217;s emotion or feelings;<\/li>\n<li>and then those feelings function as a reason for embracing an idea or taking action: If the emotionally charged appeals made by <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5164570\/emma-gonzalez-speech-parkland\/\">students who survived the Parkland shooting <\/a>overwhelm me with a mix of compassion, anger, and hope, for example, I might call my congressperson and encourage them to produce some effective gun control legislation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle described ways a rhetor might stir an audience&#8217;s feelings, including these two: Enargeia\u00a0involves vivid description, a bringing before the eyes or actualization, a way of speaking or writing that makes the lifeless living through metaphor, especially\u00a0striking\u00a0or unfamiliar metaphor. One of the most effective means of pathetic appeal,\u00a0enargeia\u00a0gives the listener [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"parent":197,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"nosidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-212","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212\/revisions\/2495"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/davis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}