The Realm Of Rhetoric Summary

Rhetoric is the knack of persuasion: rhetoric is established on the belief that argumentation targets at gaining the loyalty of audience, argumentation is analogous to the audience to be persuaded. The book, ‘The Realm of Rhetoric’ by Chaim Perelman, in entirety is a cosmos of argumentative discourse. Rhetoric and philosophy of argumentation form the principle theme of Perelman’s thought, is an extension of Aristotle’s rhetoric.

With regard to the audience, Perelman adheres to the dual concepts of specific audience and a universal audience; admitting that every argument is aimed to a definite individual or a group, the speaker has to decide, which message and data will gain loyalty of an ideal audience. The objective of an argument is to

Understanding the importance of audience to rhetoric, it is crucial to evaluate the role of audience in terms of writing. According to Ong, a speaker’s audience is different from writer’s audience. In reality, he opines that the term ‘audience’ is improper with reference to reading and writing. In Ong’s view ‘audience’ signifies a collective unit, whereas readers are not, since reading is an individualistic function. The printed information is processed at their own speed, time and interpreted differently by the readers. Whereas a speaker has the privilege to observe the audience, hence provides context to the situation. Here, Ong believes that words gain significance through context. The writer is faced with the challenge to fictionalize the audience. According to Ong, every type of audience can be fictionalized to a degree, including a speaker’s audience. He goes on explaining how letters and diaries demonstrate that all audiences are to some extent fictionalized. Ong concludes by drawing the example that in reality regardless of the relationships everyone wears a mask. Masks are very common and accepted in the reader/writer relationship, consequently the obligation for writers to fictionalize a role for readers, and for readers to acknowledge that role chosen by the