An Introduction to Rhetorical Terms

An important part of the vocabulary of cultural
criticism and theory today is in the rhetorical terms
we read and write, reason and refute by. These are
the means by which we tell and receive the stories
that explain the world. This book is divided into three
sections, the first dealing with classical and
traditional figures (such assimile, metaphor and
metonomy), the second dealing with non-figures and
near-tropes (like signs and symbols), the final
section of the book devoted to new figures, and to
rhetoric and tropology today. This last section
familiarizes the reader with many new rhetorical
terms employed in post-structural criticism and
theory (terms like bricolage, differend and
differance). Through the study of rhetoric "old and
new" one learns how meaning is made. It is through
that kind of understanding one gets to decide what
to mean.