Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere
From Socrates to Stephen Colbert
By (author) Elizabeth Benacka
Not available to order
Publication date:
02 November 2016Length of book:
178 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498519878
Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere: From Socrates to Stephen Colbert investigates classical and contemporary understandings of satire, parody, and irony, and how these genres function within a deliberative democracy. Elizabeth Benacka examines the rhetorical history, theorization, and practice of humor spanning from ancient Greece and Rome to the contemporary United States. In particular, this book focuses on the contemporary work of Stephen Colbert and his parody of a conservative media pundit, analyzing how his humor took place in front of an uninitiated audience and ridiculed a variety of problems and controversies threatening American democracy. Ultimately, Benacka emphasizes the importance of humor as a discourse capable of calling forth a group of engaged citizens and a source of civic education in contemporary society.
In Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere, Benacka offers a unique vantage point to consider one of the great satirists of our times. Taking us beyond the television screen, she deftly employs a rich body of rhetorical theory to examine Stephen Colbert’s remarkable forays into the public sphere. She makes a compelling case that Colbert’s intersections with real political institutions represent both a daring kind of political art and an innovative – and much needed -- form of civic education.