Rhetorical representations as a transformation of classical rhetoric in the digital space

Abstract

The article examines the current state of rhetoric within a digitalised society. The findings provide grounds for introducing the concept of “rhetorical representations” into contemporary scholarly discourse. Since antiquity, rhetoric has constituted not merely an art but a coherent and theoretically elaborated system of eloquence: the genres of speech were clearly delineated, the spheres of its application were defined, the rhetorical canon was established, and the characteristics of the ideal orator were thoroughly described. However, these provisions retained their relevance only within the socio-political and cultural space of antiquity. Today, the physical world of the human being is co-ontological with the digital space, which by its very essence levels the classical rhetorical foundation. Within a few decades, such notions as “digital rhetoric”, “black rhetoric”, “media rhetoric”, “online rhetoric”, and “visual rhetoric” have emerged, displacing rhetoric into the domain of populism and fashion rather than that of art or scholarly inquiry. Taking into account the specificity of the digital space, the heightened role of the visual image in communicative action, the active use of audio effects, and the plurality of verbalisation possibilities, the authors, drawing upon classical rhetoric, propose the introduction of a new term — “rhetorical representations”. Accordingly, the aim of the present study consists in the theoretical substantiation of introducing this term into the conceptual apparatus of the humanities. The following methods were employed: the comparative-historical method (to examine the transformation of rhetoric throughout history), the hermeneutic and structuralist methods (to construct the model of rhetorical representations), and the method of generalisation (for the systematisation of the obtained results). As a result, the study offers a precise definition of “rhetorical representations” together with their essential features, as well as a developed model of the five rhetorical stages under the conditions of the digital space, integrating the processes of visualisation and verbalisation.