The Paths of Rhetorical Renewal and their Applications

Abstract

This article investigates three paths to rhetorical renewal: Intrinsic, extrinsic, and replacement, i.e. (establishing a new system on the ruins of an old one). The article focuses on the paths of rhetorical renewal in Emad Abdul-Latif’s works, which address the history of rhetoric, its etymology, and innovation. The article is mainly concerned with Emad Abdul-Latif’s “Rhetorical Empowerment of Audiences” project developed in 2005. It tackles two crucial aspects. The first is discourse production, which studies the audience’s responses within the literary work. The second is interpreting the discourse, which examines the audience’s responses outside the literary work. The article also investigates Emad Abdul-Latif’s cognitive, cultural, and social motives that led to the search for new paths for Arabic rhetoric. Here, the research focuses on monitoring a set of foundations that are essential drivers in establishing this project; the most important ones are reconnecting rhetoric with life and the role of rhetoric in addressing human crises in the modern era and others.