Breaking Up (At) Totality: A Rhetoric of Laughter (Rhetorical Philosophy & Theory) Book

Rhetoric and composition theory has shown a renewed interest in sophistic countertraditions, as seen in the work of such "postphilosophers" as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Hélène Cixous, and of such rhetoricians as Susan Jarratt and Steven Mailloux. As D. Diane Davis traces todayâ??s theoretical interest to those countertraditions, she also sets her sights beyond them.          Davis takes a “third sophisticsâ? approach, one that focuses on the play of language that perpetually disrupts the “either/orâ? binary construction of dialectic. She concentrates on the nonsequential  third—excess—that overflows languageâ??s dichotomies. In this work, laughter operates as a trope for disruption or breaking up, which is, from Davisâ??s perspective, a joyfully destructive shattering of our confining conceptual frameworks.           Read More