Tropes

I like the idea behind Tropes. Killingsworth relates it to a corrupt government; like killingsworth, authors we've read before have alluded to this idea but he says it very plainly. Language has become corrupt and his reasoning is our use of tropes hasn't evolved to fit into the the contemporary lexicon or they were false to begin with. Some tropes can be seen as Fallic, appealing to the ear but serving no real truth. There's also a quality of metawareness behind the tropes that hold true; rhetoric is an on going discourse between the speakers and the unknown. The speakers are human and the unknown is nature. The Nietchze quote is very powerful and I feel it reinforces my former statement.

The Trope

Killingsworth defines “trope” as “just another word for ‘figure of speech,’” but proceeds to say he prefers the term trope instead of figure of speech “because figures of speech are also figures of thought…and writing.”  He says that “troping” is a “’turn of phrase,’ ‘turn of thought,’ and ‘twist of plot’” (121).  

He describes four different types of tropes (appeals):

• Identification/metaphor
• Association/metonymy
• Represent/synecdoche
• Irony

There were two different ideas that sparked my interest from this passage.  After reading his further description of tropes,

Daniel's Velocity

Killingsworth and Daniel each exhibited extremely thought-provoking, direct, bold claims in their works, somewhat intertwining and feeding off of one another.  However, in my perusing of Daniel’s project, I could not help but think of it as a blatant example useful in defining genre and it’s effects, as well as an example of hypertextuality, and even rhetorical velocity in some senses. The voices, along with the somewhat literally breath-taking quotes that appeared on the screen in Daniel’s virtual walkthrough exhibit, connect automatically with the reader and their relation to something so human becomes prevalent in the mind.  This auditory and visual, along with a more background kinetic (mouse traction), connection allows the reader to step outside of conventional and literary definitions of genre,  rhetorical velocity, and hypertext, simply because this “text” communicates with and connects to so many different areas of the reader’s psyche. 

Killingsworth : Tropes

Killingsworth mentions how one of the four tropes, metaphor is the “the most commonly recognized example in ordinary language”(121).  Without the understanding of the four tropes one cannot effectively decipher these commonly used examples.  Which are a way for us as humans to “express the emotional quality of our relationship to the world”(122).  Not understanding how these tropes function can hinder our ability to relate and work with people in our culture.  All four of the tropes (metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony) have their unique quality in which they express something. Tropes may be closely related to the term ‘genre’ as they both categorize a broad and at times abstract expression.  Although as genre can refer categorizing ways in which a movie is made and how a story is portrayed on screen and what cinema techniques were used.  The four tropes are not just categorizing ways of expressing something.  They are more typically expressing completely different subjects through various mediums, not as all movie genres are expressed through film, but they are categories of ways to use similar technique to describe completely different situations.  Which is why is is so hard to just put them as four sublets for one main form of expression.

Way of Thinking?

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Some examples of metaphors are “he drowned in a sea of grief” or “she is fishing in troubled waters.” How and where does one come across a sea that is filled not with water, but with grief? All these expressions have one thing in common: a situation is compared to a real thing, although the “situation” is not actually that particular thing. In this week’s reading Killingsworth suggest that his readers approach metaphors a bit differently than we may have in the past, "Instead of thinking of metaphor as a comparison that leaves something out, try thinking of it as an identification, a way of bringing together seemingly unlike things" (Killingsworth 123).    When an author utilizes a metaphor, he is urging the readers to identify the relationship between two words. While reading Killingsworth's “Appeal Through Tropes”, I found myself often mixing up how a metaphor works and how a trope works. According to Killingsworth, the metaphor function is identification. The synonym of trope is defined as metaphor, but there seems to be some other implications when using the word trope that metaphor does not have.

Irony, Multivocality, etc. in "Public Secrets"

Killingsworth makes a strong argument about tropes and their usefulness in discerning functions of appeals; that each metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony all play important roles in the purposes of various discourses. According to modern theorists, the use of tropes is “pervasive and unavoidable” because, as George Orwell states in “Politics and the English Language,” language is made up of “dead metaphors” that become common phrases and concepts (Killingsworth). With that said, Daniel’s hypertext essay absolutely uses the tropes discussed in the reading, and that use of tropes enriches the reader’s experience. 

Daniel's "Public Secrets"

Daniel's "Public Secrets" is a clear example of Jamie Killingsworth's idea that a trope is something an author uses to better relate to his or her audience. This can be done by four methods; identification, association, representation, and closing the distance. Daniel's work is a great example of this because she connected on a closer level with her audience by the medium of her work and the over all design.

By choosing to separate the entire page into inside (black) vs. outside (white) she really created a clear divide between the inside views and the outside views of the penitentiary system. The same feeling associated with this sharp contrast in color could not have been achieved if Daniel had not used this method of delivery for her digital archive.

How I See Tropes Working In "Public Secrets"

Sharon Daniel's "Public Secrets" uses many tropes in the introduction sequence. First of all, she says "under the gaze of the gun towers," (Daniel) which utilizes the trope M. Jimmie Killingsworth called "Identification/Metaphor" in his "Appeal Through Tropes" (Killingsworth 123). Killingsworth's idea of how "Metaphors...ultimately lead back to the body" is represented here (Killingsworth 126). Daniel personifies the gun towers by giving them a gaze. She says that people are to eyes as gun towers are to people looking out from them.

Thoughts thoughts thoughts

Both Killingsworth and Daniel present unique ideas in this week’s readings, both conflicted with social and cultural norms. Killingsworth battles with our universal acceptance of tropes and why humans feel the need to use them. He analyzes the connection between abstract and concrete, our inherent need to “express the emotional quality of our relationship to the world” (Killingsworth 122). Daniel’s project is profound and moving, questioning the social norm of turning a blind eye to public secrets. Daniel’s project includes visual and audio elements, with descriptions and first hand accounts of this issue (specifically dealing with incarcerated women). As both authors tackle these huge social issues, it is important to dig deeper into the discourse presented here and work through some of their most profound thoughts.

Tropes and Daniels

Jimmie Killingsworth and (especially) Sharon Daniels different types of text provide intriguing information some may not normally question or pursue. In Killingsworth’s chapter from the Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: an Ordinary-Language Approach, we are introduced to the idea that a trope is a form of rhetorical appeal. The tropes discussed in this reading were based off of Burkes “four classical figures with four habits of mind or conceptual attitudes more easily recognized by modern readers: metaphor with perspective, metonymy with reduction, synecdoche with representation, and irony with dialectic” (Killingsworth 123). However, Killingsworth reinterprets Burke’s tropes, and attaches alternative “habits of mind or conceptual attitudes.” 

Breaking Down the Tropes

"Appeals Through Tropes" further accentuates the notion that language reflects the collective ideas from certain cultures; similes, metaphors etc. In this case by troping, certain phrases are coined in correlation with the relationships between “unfamiliar things to the familiar experience of physical existence” (124). Metaphors, as the master trope, is viewed as an analogy as opposed to a category of simple expression. A wonderful example of that would be the expression “A Rose that Grew from Concrete”. What's implied is that a physical rose (something of beauty) can grow from concrete (something rough & rugged).

Tropes, basics of contextuality.

Killingsworth’s purpose for categorizing the tropes in the way that he did was to show how language plays into human thinking and understanding. When comparing, associating, or otherwise linking words together, they can blend ideas and complicate thinking. Tropes can also serve to simplify complex thoughts, bridging conceptual gaps in a way that brings deeper meaning to an idea.

With identification/metaphor, Killingsworth pointed out that all metaphors have a tendency to connect the world to the body, or otherwise, use familiar physical things to describe unfamiliar things of the mind. Rather than a division between mind and body, there is continuity, a continual relationship between the two. Although not always direct, the power of metaphors to invoke the body to understand products of the mind provides a great insight into how we think in connections between the physical and non-physical.

Tropes and Genre

Nobody denies that language helps shape our understanding of the world around us. Tropes have become so popular and prevalent in language precisely because they are flexible; they have the capacity to adapt and change as the world around us adapts and changes. Another really important idea in this essay is the fact that tropes are so flexible and so useful that they become standardized to the point that no one has to think about the ratios within the metaphor or how the synechdote draws two things together. If anything, this internalization works only toward the concept that tropes are valuable and persuasive. If they weren't, we would not keep coming back to them over and over again as a species.

Tropes

Killingsworth describes many different types of tropes, and it is most important that they are easy to understand because they conduct our way of thinking. As well, Daniel shows that through combining different mediums, a story has a deeper meaning and hits closer to the reader, as seen through his use of the inmate story. In my opinion, multimodal outlets such websites and TV shows allow for the viewer to experience the subject matter at a deeper level. The appeal of a multimodal site is seen through Killingsworth’s article. Tropes show the affect on the audience, shown through the use of the prison and the exigence of the audience. A trope is considered the most basic form of speech according to Killingsworth, which lends itself to being more inclusive while being seen throughout all of our use of language.

Daniel and Killingsworth

In our understanding of Killingsworth's typology of four tropes, we must be able to determine "what they reveal but also what they conceal." (121) The four main tropes described in this essay are metaphors, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Each trope is flexible because they can combine together or relate to each other in persuasive ways. In this way, they are persuasively important. Killingsworth says, "All forms of knowledge and even conventional uses of language are built upon an original foundation of wordplay and figuration." (122) In this way, tropes are treated as forms and art. Form comes from the form of knowledge and how it is expressed and used.

Daniel and Tropes

It is necessary for the tropes that Killingsworth describes to be flexible outside of form because they are necessary to understanding the way in which we think.  The metaphor and metonymy tropes are described as the two basic forms of thinking.  Because of this these devices invade more than just the literary form in which they were created.  Metaphor and metonymy can be understood as similar to Miller’s genre.  Just as Miller says that, “a rhetorically sound definition of genre must not be focused on the substance or form of a genre but on the action it is used to accomplish” (Miller 151), so should the trope be examined by the action that it accomplishes.
 

Tropes

Daniel’s “Public Secrets” provides an interesting new perspective to a subject that is mostly hidden from the public eye.  Through a mix of different mediums, mostly consisting of interviews with female inmates and quoted material, Daniel’s audience hears the heartbreaking stories of the horrifying life that goes on within the prison.

I believe that the purpose of this type of multimodal website is that it is meant to appeal to certain tropes that Jimmie Killingsworth discusses in his article “Appeal Through Tropes.”  In his article Killingsworth discusses the concept of a trope and how it is used to help a writer better connect with his or her audience through four methods, identification, association, representation and closing distance.  Daniel’s project implements these tropes in an effort to communicate with his audience on a level that is more than just skin deep. By quoting material and arranging it in a manor that highlights more important words (writing out quotes but making some words physically bigger [I can’t remember what this is called… a word something…]) such as, “Life,” Daniel implements Killingsworth’s idea of having words build on each other to build meaning.  “Modern theorists of rhetoric responded by insisting that rhetorical language, including the use of tropes, is pervasive and unavoidable.  All forms of knowledge and even conventional uses of language are build upon an original foundation of wordplay and figuration.”  This construction of language helps to build meaning and make Daniel’s work have a more profound impact on his audience.

Daniel Exigence and the Basic Facts

Sharon Daniel’s essay Public Life serves as a critique of the corporate prison system that, “insist that we understand the prison industrial complex as a social problem that impacts us all, its dehumanizing effects spiraling out to call into question the basic principles underpinning any just and democratic society. Public Secrets asks us each to realize that the prison system diminishes us all” (Vectors Editorial Staff). This is plain to see as the audience of the essay takes one click to view the project and is introduced by Daniel’s voice of forbidding words, images of black and grays, and background music that feels as if we are about to go a step further into someplace that is unwelcoming. Through this brief introduction and the other material Daniel provides her audience the view of the prison system is shown as something terrible, but it is the information that Daniel and the inmates use that really convict the audience that this essay is a critique of the prison. I want to argue that it is the actual voice recordings help engage the audience (not certain tropes), and assists in revealing Daniel’s exigence, which is to get her audience to view this prison system as a problem in our culture and make them want to take some kind of social action.

Killingsworth - Tropes

Through an appendix of his text, A Grammar of Motives – “Four Master Tropes,” (following Giambattista Vico’s scholarly thoughts), “Burke connects four classical figures with four habits of mind of conceptual attitudes more easily recognized by modern readers: metaphor with perspective, metonymy with reduction, synecdoche with representation and irony with dialectic (503)” (Killingsworth, 123). With this distinction made, M Jimmie Killingsworth moves to assess the differences between how we come to understand and identify these tropes.

Tropes and Public Secrets

In "Appeal Through Tropes", Killingsworth discuses the different types of tropes and there effects on language. He starts by saying that "trope" in its most basic form is a figure of speech. He then narrows his use of the word trope in saying "I prefer the term trope to figure of speech because figures of speech are also figures of thought and figures of writing" (121). He uses trope because it is more inclusive (121). Killingsworth gives us four different tropes: Identification/Metaphor, Association/Metonymy, Representation/synecdoche and Distance/Irony. He makes his use of trope more concrete but still flexible in saying that in rhetorical language the use of tropes is "pervasive and unavoidable" (122). Tropes are spread throughout our language and can't be avoided. Killingworth has to see the term as flexible because he believes that tropes are "expressing the emotional quality of our relationship to the world" (122). Since tropes deal with the emotional, they can be left to interpretation; so Killingsworth sees them as being flexible enough to argue for their persuasive power and importance. Tropes are ways to create persuasiveness and to enhance language. 

Using Tropes the Right Way

In Killingsworth’s description of the four tropes, he explains the tropes in a way that deems them useful for much for than making our work sound more eloquent. Using the four tropes, metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, and irony appeals to our daily communication because, according to Killingsworth, the use of these tropes is more logical than it is artistic. Although some view tropes as a way to make a text more elegant, Killingsworth explains the practical use of these tropes. He explains, “What we end up with is not only an expansion of the appeals theory and its analytical power, but also a redefinition of the tropes as patterns of appealing” (Killingsworth 121). Tropes no longer remain an optional way to enhance language, but they become necessary tools for persuasion and understanding. 

Killingsworth's Big Deal

Killingsworth's essay, "Appeal Through Tropes", breaks down tropes in such a way that it helps the reader gain a greater understanding. When I say a "greater understanding", I mean that this new information will help one understand or analyze more;it can make someone look at something completely differently since it's adding another layer of understanding and evaluation. Tropes are so flexible in a way that they have the power to enhance what the reader is trying to say. They are so varied, that in any way shape or form, a writer can use them to his or her advantage. Because of how flexible they are, they're seen as important by Killingsworth. "Tropes help us classify and study other functions of appeals. They suggest how one position (author, audience, or value) can relate to another" (Killingsworth, 121).

Killingworth's Four Tropes

I chose to write my response to the first question that was proposed in the prompt.  Why are tropes important to understand?  Do they have any power of persuasion?  Should they only be considered in discussions of literature?

Regarding Killingworth's flexibility on the term "trope," he writes, "I prefer the term trope to figure of speech because figures of speech are also figures of thought and figures of writing" (Killingsworth Introduction).  From the start, he chooses to narrow down his use of the word trope.  I think he simply does this for the sake of his argument.  I found his explanation helpful because I was able to narrow down my thinking of the term so I could relate it to his own understanding of a trope.

Killingsworth

In today’s reading, understanding the idea or concept of the trope, it says in the reading that it’s another way of saying figure of speech. The word trope literally means turn of phrase or turn of thought. I somewhat interpreted this as the turning point in a story or movie; the twist or ironic turn at the end of a movie. I think that the use of a trope can somewhat be fun or exciting because it can be that the unexpected which turn or redirects the language or effect.

Killingsworth's Tropes and Daniel's Public Secrets

I think Killingsworth sees the tropes as flexible because he sees tropes as a figure of speech. Killingsworth states that “Modern theorists of rhetoric insisted that rhetorical language, including the use of tropes, is pervasive and unavoidable. All forms of knowledge and even conventional uses of language are built upon an original foundation of wordplay and figuration” (122). Killingsworth also defines tropes as a way to express the emotional quality of our relationship to the world. Emotional are based on interpretation and therefore, Killingsworth must see tropes as being flexible enough to argue for its persuasive importance. I think that tropes can be treated as forms, when need be. However, I don’t think tropes always have to be treated as forms.