Cinnabar and Alabaster

project:
406. "in rhetorical transactions...the past may abide as a living presence"; "it is sometimes rhetorical genres and not rhetorical situations that are decisively formulaic"; "these discourses bear the chromosomal imprint of ancestral genres": "the contemporary papal encyclical to roman imperial documents and the apostolic epistles," "the early state of the union address to the 'king's speech' from the throne, and "essential elements of the early congressional replies to the parliamentary replies to the king"

conclusions:
414-5. (quoting herself) "perception of the proper response to an unprecedented rhetorical situation grows not merely from the situation but also from antecedent rhetorical forms"; "choice of an appropriate antecendent genre guides the rhetor toward a response consonant with situational demands"--and choosing an inappropriate one can result in non-working responses that need amendment; "rhetors do perceive unprecedented situations through antecedent genres...severe constraints are imposed on rhetor and audience once a generic antecedent is permitted to anchor response, and...the manacles of an inappropriate genre may be broken with varying degrees of difficulty." "antecedent genres are capable of imposing powerful constraints. the demonstrable existence of these constraints mandates the question, how free is the rhetor's choice from among the available means of persuasion?"; "to hold that 'the rhetor is personally responsible for his rhetoric regardless of "genres,"' is, at least in the cases examined here, to become mired in paradoxes"; "the question of the extent to which rhetorical response is determined by situation, audience expectations, antecedent rhetoric or other factors requires determined inquiry"