Kairotic Struggle--Now With More Circulation!

When Charise and I started making our schema of the chapter titled, "Kairos and Multimodal Public Rhetoric" by David Sheridan, Jim Rodolfo and Anthony Michel (which we created using a free Apple computer App called MindNode Lite), it was hard not to reproduce the schema that Sheridan et al. had created. Seeing the information visualized one way, it took us a while to "re-envision" it on our own.

In the chapter we read, Sheridan et al. argue that the definition of kairos and of “kairoitc struggle” (which the authors define as “the way rhetors negotiate or ‘struggle’ with and against the contexts as they seek a particular outcome” (50)) needs to be revisited and redefined to include social, cultural, and material considerations made by the rhetor before and after composing. According to Sheridan et al. “kairotic struggle begins before the rhetor’s commitment to a particular mode” and “extends beyond the moment when the composition is done” (73). The geometric re-envisioning of the rhetorical triangle that Sheridan et al. created portrays a rhetorical decision making process that “begins” with invention and continues all the way through the re-production and appropriation of the text by other authors.

Here is an example of an older mode of circulation. 

The term “circulation,” or the way texts move through time and space, is a key term for Sheridan et al. in arguing for an expanded perception of kairos and of composing. The rhetor has to consider how the text he/she will create will move through time and space, and how it might continue to circulate after initial reception, key factors that come into play are mode, media, genre, materialilty, and the navigation of social/cultural fields. The notion of circulation is particularly helpful in thinking about new media texts like memes, blogs, and social media in general. As rhetors, we choose a medium because of how the text will travel, how accurately it will reach our audience at that moment in time and space via the material mode we have chosen. I particularly liked the example Sheridan et al. give of the housing organization’s choice to not use social media, but who instead relied on old fashioned paper newsletters because the materiality of the newsletter increased the likelihood that it would be read and because the placement of the newsletter in the doors of individuals living in the community created a feeling of community. “Older” modes are still valid and advantageous in the right rhetorical situation.

And a newer example of circulation 

This notion of circulation is implicit in the rhetorical model built by Sheridan et al., while the schema created by Charise and I gives circulation a more prominent role since it is so essential to the argument made by Sheridan et al in the chapter we read. We tried to envision the various considerations made the rhetor in the kairotic struggle, starting first with considerations made before the actual act of composing begins, which we labeled as part of the invention process. A rhetor thinks about the mode he/she will compose in (visually, textually etc), the media he/she will choose to compose with (computer vs. a paint brush), the genre (the internet meme vs. the twitter post), the audience that is to be reached and the conditions existing/facilitating those choices or what I take to be “exigency”.

Sheridan et al. make a concerted effort to validate the existence of kairotic struggle after the text is being composed, which Charise and I tried to give more prominence to in the design of our schema. While many critics would argue, “THAT’S NOT WRITING!” when thinking of post-production kairotic struggles, Sheridan et al. argue that concerns about post-production distribution influence rhetors before composing and thereby influence the writing process. An example of navigating cultural fields is given when Sheridan et al. discuss Shawn Wong, an Asian American author struggling for legitimacy in the racially biased publishing world of 1970’s America. Wong has to navigate a complex cultural field (making friends with publishers first who understand his cultural values and then connecting to the larger publishing world) to distribute his text. In his struggle, he needed to have his text published as a nationally distributed book (as opposed to a chapbook) to gain credibility and to reach a large audience. The networking required to achieve Wong’s goal began before the composing of the book. Another example of choices made during the composing process influenced by choices about distribution occurs when Sheridan et al. discuss the political bumper sticker, written in a brief and concise manner to accommodate the materiality of the small space on a bumper stick that needs to be printed in large letters to be read from a distance. I see the idea of “before” and “after” as a grey area for Sheridan et al. where considerations of distribution occur in the invention process.

In addition, Sheridan et al. mention that the text may be “re-composed” by other parties and that may be intended by the original rhetor, which the authors refer to as “rhetorical recomposition.” An example of this would be the proliferation of material on the Internet re-purposed for memes or remixes, wherein authorship is complicated as the material circulates through time and space being altered along the way. I wonder too how we could bring into a discussion of “material authors” also, or the individuals who architect the tools we use to make memes, create word documents, and or distribute ideas.

My meta-meme: