Seven Red

That’s my itinerary for this coming weekend. I fly out of O’Hare (always an iffy proposition) Thursday, en route to Computers & Writing in Athens, GA. First, I’ll meet up with my C&W co-panelist and partner in crime at the Atlanta airport; we’ll drive to Athens, fervently hoping to avoid any My Cousin Vinny style situations on the way. We deliver our talks Friday morning, then back in the sub-compact, back to the airport, line up some drinks, and wait for our direct flight to Seattle for the Rhetoric Society of America conference. Co-panelist and I will be wearing Dockers and our most obnoxious golf shirts in order to pretend that we’re those consultants who go around the country firing people, like the guys in In the Company of Men, or younger and (at least for Co-panelist) hipper versions of The Bobs from Office Space. (Speaking of The Bobs, she reminded me the other day that there was actually a TV character named Bob Loblaw. I miss Bob Loblaw. You know you’re saying it out loud right now, listening to it: Bob Loblaw…Bob Loblaw…Bob Loblaw…)

In any case, I’m not as good a salesperson as some people (who actually know how to reveal just enough to virtually assure attendance!), so I’ll just offer the intro teaser for the RSA paper:

Since James Kinneavy’s efforts to resuscitate the concept in the early 1980’s, kairos has enjoyed a remarkable recuperation. Indeed, between the detailed histories of kairos in its classical sophistic tradition and its wide range of application to contemporary rhetorical phenomena, kairos has been transformed from the “neglected concept” that Kinneavy identified less than thirty years ago to one of the most important and frequently used concepts in rhetorical studies. While our understanding of the way kairos functioned in antiquity has been greatly enriched by the varied studies of its role in sophistic discourse, and while collections such as Philip Sipiora and James Baumlin’s have extended our understanding of the concept through Renaissance and Twentieth century thought, little analysis has sought to explain kairos’ historical reemergence in our own era. Put more plainly, we are told that kairos was neglected, and that it is back now; we learn about the origins of the concept, and the way it functioned in various historical periods; we apply it today for various analytic purposes. But we don’t particularly reflect on what has been a rapid return to prominence of the idea.

Our instincts as rhetoricians and historians should suggest a different direction. Our instincts should suggest that for a concept to attain such centrality in any historical period, it must solve a number of theoretical or practical problems; it must lend order, coherence, or shape to a broader table of concepts or discourse; or it must link up with material conditions in some relevant or useful way. Our instincts should cause us to ask, in other words, “Why kairos now?”

Want more? Huh? Do ya? Barn burner, yeah? Then I guess I’ll see you at 8 am Monday morning in Seattle! I told you I wasn’t that great a salesperson…

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