Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I would like to take a look at the theory of expectation, as taken from authors that we have read this semester, namely Kennedy and Massumi, and illustrate the power that shaping your expectation can have. I will illustrate the observations gleaned from the Kennedy and Massumi articles with a clip from a speech from Adolph Hitler. I will sub-divide the issue into four parts: 1) the expectation of the audience, 2) how a departure from expectation can affect an audience and 3) how, by controlling the expectation of the audience, a rhetor can be most persuasive, and 4), I will use a clip from a Hitler speech to revisit and illustrate how well controlling the expectation of an audience can help in moving your audience to a specific action - however sinister.

I will use the first portion of my argument to discuss the nature of the audience's expectation of what is being presented to them. Initially, I will talk about the genre of a piece, then the context in which it lies - much like we did with the visual analysis. From there I will dive into the Kennedy selection we read, and analyze how things are perceived initially by the audience. Specifically I will concentrate around his ideas that "the receiver's interpretation of a communication is prior to the speaker's intent in determining its meaning" and that "the receiver's knowledge of the rhetorical code - determines what the reader does when the message arrives" (7, 8).

That puts a whole lot of emphasis on context, so to avoid a discussion purely for the birds, I will bring Massumi in at this point to the effect that context is very important yes, but only initially, and the disruption of expectation within that context is what engages both the "primitive", skin level, and also the exteroceptical receivers. This is where I will hit the "affect" side of things, and expound upon the potential and the probable coupled with the expected vs. intensity/suspense that Massumi explains.

The discussion of Massumi will transition smoothly into the next segment of my discussion, namely, as a rhetor, how to consider the expectations of the audience to yield the highest degree of effectiveness in your means to move them to an action. This will be the main purpose of this discussion, essentially - how to best use expectation when constructing an argument. Armed with that knowledge, the rhetor can then set about disrupting some of them by highlighting certain visceral aspects of his message - the jumps and the shocks accomplished by enargeia and emotionally charged language - to revert the audience from the realm of the possible (on the grid), to that of the potential, where anything can happen. A successful move in that direction will heighten the audience's pleasure in viewing the message, and make them more likely to acquiesce to your request. 

            The main focus of my project will be combining Kennedy's thoughts on expectation, with Massumi's exploration of the three versions of the same snowman story. The question I will be answering is: how does the knowledge collected from that investigation help a rhetor fully engage his audience on all levels, to be the most affective and effective that they can be.

            For a visual element to this project, I will incorporate a speech from Hitler and analyze it using the Kennedy/Massumi hypothesis. Hitler, as the quintessential example for all things rhetoric, will allow an illustration for the context (lavish banners, sharp uniforms, organized army presentation, etc.) and how it is useful. Given the time period in which he rose to power, such extravagance was scarce, so for a charismatic leader to come in sporting all of it, it would make a large statement on the audience, since their expectation is in the realm of their normal poverty-stricken life. Hitler's manipulation of that against the desperation of his destitute audience allowed him to yield a high level of persuasion among his audience.