Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching by Thomas Frank A.;

Author:Thomas, Frank A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2016-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Black Preaching and Rhetorical Criticism

As discussed on the Bus Tour, Donna E. Allen defines rhetorical criticism as the study of the various persuasive options available to preachers in the creation of their messages and how those options work together to create effects in the preacher and audience.7 Rhetorical criticism allows the critic to see with greater clarity the persuasive choices made by the preacher, and potentially other choices that were not selected. For example, what audience was not mentioned, or, who, in effect, was written out of, or even excluded from the sermon? For Allen, rhetorical criticism is critical in the construction of a womanist homiletic because it can identify “derogatory images of women and patriarchal teachings.” Each preacher is making decisive rhetorical choices that include or exclude audiences, and affect the audience’s apprehension of the message. Allen believes that knowledge of rhetorical operations on the part of the preacher allows the congregation to respond to and engage the message at the level of “emancipatory praxis.”8 I want to further expand Allen’s appropriation of rhetorical criticism for emancipatory praxis by applying the rhetorical method of close reading to “His Own Clothes.” First, let me explain what is meant by the use of the term close reading.

An important shift occurred in the field of communication and rhetoric in the last thirty years. Though rhetoric was concerned with human speech, until recently, little attention was paid to the study of the inner workings of specific speeches. Critics interested in studying the inner workings of texts sought insights from the field of literary criticism. With the new attention to the inner depths of speeches, a method of “close reading” emerged in rhetorical criticism. According to Michael Leff, one of the leading proponents of close reading, individual and written speech texts have “rhetorical textures,” and a certain “integrity and density.” Speech texts are not just a compilation of words, sentences, and paragraphs, but rather an organized system of ideas, images, and arguments. The written text is a world in and of itself and within the boundaries of the text are infinite insights into the mind, heart, and belief system of the speaker and the intended audience. Close reading allows the critic to peer deeply into the inner world of the speaker, including the speaker’s persuasive choices and the speaker’s conception of audience.

The critique of close reading was that with such close and microscopic analysis of the inner workings of the text, the critic could lose sensitivity to the social and historical dimensions. If there are an infinite number of insights in the text itself, and the text is a world in and of itself, what is the relationship between text and context? How does context influence the inner workings of the text? The concept of “intertextuality” emerged as the view that texts cannot be conceived or understood in isolation in and of themselves, but only in relation to other texts and utterances. By adding intertextuality to close reading, one captures the context, the historical and social dimensions of the text.

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