Overview

Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is an authoritative reference work designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory of invitational rhetoric, developed twenty-five years ago by Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin. This theory challenges the conventional conception of rhetoric as persuasion and defines rhetoric as an invitation to understanding as a means to create a relationship rooted in equality, immanent value, and self-determination. Rather than celebrating argumentation, division, and winning, invitational rhetoric encourages rhetors to listen across differences, to engage in dialogue, and to try to understand positions different from their own. Organized into the three categories of foundations, extensions, and applications, Inviting Understanding is a compilation of published articles and new essays that explore and expand the theory. The book provides readers with access to a wide range of resources about this revolutionary theory in areas such as community organizing, social justice activism, social media, film, graffiti, institutional and team decision-making, communication and composition pedagogy, and interview protocols.

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9781538131039

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Reviews

Foss (Univ. of Denver) and Griffin (Colorado State Univ.) are the principal developers of the invitational rhetoric paradigm. This publication marks the 25th anniversary of Foss and Griffin's original article on this theory (Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for an Invitational Rhetoric, Communication Monographs, 1995), making this extensive showcase of the scope and impact of their work quite fitting. Presented under three headings--Foundations, Extensions, Applications--essays cover the foundations of invitational rhetoric, offer extensions of the theory, and apply the concepts to a variety of artifacts. In a particularly interesting essay, Alina Haliliuc studies the 2012 Romanian film Beyond the Hills, arguing that the movie functions as an invitational rhetorical offering in that it provides a brave perspective about highly controversial issues. Foss and Griffin conclude by provoking inquiry into the growth of the theory by looking at ways in which invitational rhetoric can inform pedagogy, is affected by technology, can enact social change, and can inform research methods. No other books on this theory provide the breadth and expertise this one does. This is a must-have for scholars and an excellent supplemental text for the classroom. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.-- Choice This book is both a comprehensive and expansive examination of previously and newly published works on one of the communication discipline's most important theoretical contributions. Invitational rhetoric has certainly made its mark in the field, and this volume adds extensively to our understanding of invitational and feminist theories of communication and rhetoric.--Stacey Sowards, University of Texas at Austin A remarkable turn in the rhetorical tradition, the theory of invitational rhetoric invites us to reimagine rhetoric as a form of genuine dialogue. Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is a great resource for anyone wanting to explore this provocative idea.--Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado at Boulder As an advocate for and practitioner of invitational rhetoric for decades, I am deeply indebted to Foss and Griffin's work. Now comes this comprehensive new resource, Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric--and it could not appear at a more propitious time, as teachers everywhere are looking for ways to move beyond the fragmentation and division and attack culture we are living through.--Andrea Lunsford, Stanford University For the past quarter century, Foss and Griffin's theory of invitational rhetoric has played an instrumental role in fostering dialogue regarding the strengths and limits of the dominant adversarial communication paradigm. As one who shares their commitment to this critical area of inquiry, I welcome publication of Inviting Understanding.--Josina M. Makau, California State University, Monterey Bay Given the divisive world in which we currently live, any approach to discourse that privileges understanding and accepting the social other is to be commended. This volume adroitly combines previously published scholarship with new material that deepens the theoretical frame for the 'invitation to understand' as well as offers a broader array of work that illustrates the possibilities for engaging in discourse.--Raymie E. McKerrow, Ohio University How lucky are we to research, write, and speak during the time of Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin, whose concept of invitational rhetoric continues to transform the long-established fields of rhetoric, communication, and composition studies. Ever since their landmark 1995 publication on this topic, my students and I have benefited from their brilliant insights; their generative scholarship; and their steady hope for a more equitable, productive rhetorical future.--Cheryl Glenn, Pennsylvannia State University

A remarkable turn in the rhetorical tradition, the theory of invitational rhetoric invites us to reimagine rhetoric as a form of genuine dialogue. Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is a great resource for anyone wanting to explore this provocative idea.--Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado at Boulder As an advocate for and practitioner of invitational rhetoric for decades, I am deeply indebted to Foss and Griffin's work. Now comes this comprehensive new resource, Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric--and it could not appear at a more propitious time, as teachers everywhere are looking for ways to move beyond the fragmentation and division and attack culture we are living through.--Andrea Lunsford, Stanford University For the past quarter century, Foss and Griffin's theory of invitational rhetoric has played an instrumental role in fostering dialogue regarding the strengths and limits of the dominant adversarial communication paradigm. As one who shares their commitment to this critical area of inquiry, I welcome publication of Inviting Understanding.--Josina M. Makau, California State University, Monterey Bay Given the divisive world in which we currently live, any approach to discourse that privileges understanding and accepting the social other is to be commended. This volume adroitly combines previously published scholarship with new material that deepens the theoretical frame for the 'invitation to understand' as well as offers a broader array of work that illustrates the possibilities for engaging in discourse.--Raymie E. McKerrow, Ohio University How lucky are we to research, write, and speak during the time of Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin, whose concept of invitational rhetoric continues to transform the long-established fields of rhetoric, communication, and composition studies. Ever since their landmark 1995 publication on this topic, my students and I have benefited from their brilliant insights; their generative scholarship; and their steady hope for a more equitable, productive rhetorical future.--Cheryl Glenn, Pennsylvannia State University This book is both a comprehensive and expansive examination of previously and newly published works on one of the communication discipline's most important theoretical contributions. Invitational rhetoric has certainly made its mark in the field, and this volume adds extensively to our understanding of invitational and feminist theories of communication and rhetoric.--Stacey Sowards, University of Texas at El Paso

Author Information

Sonja Foss is Professor of Communication at the University of Denver. She is co-author of Inviting Transformation: Presentational Speaking for a Changing World, 3rd edition (Waveland Press, 2012), which presents an entirely new model of presentational speaking rooted in invitational rhetoric, Women Speak: The Eloquence of Women’s Lives (with Karen A. Foss) (Waveland Press, 1991) and Gender Stories: Negotiating Identity in a Binary World (with Karen A. Foss and Mary E. Domenico) (Waveland Press, 2013). Cindy Griffin is Professor of Communication at Colorado State University. She is the author of Invitation to Public Speaking, 6th edition (Cengage, 2018) and Invitation to Human Communication, 2nd edition (Cengage, 2017). She is also the coauthor (with Karma Chavez) of Standing in the Intersection: Feminist Voices, Feminist Practices in Communication Studies (SUNY Press, 2012), which received the Outstanding Book Award of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender in 2012 and is completing a book on gender and communication, Beyond Gender Binaries: An Intersectional Orientation to Communication and Identities (SUNY Press)

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