ABSTRACT
Nedra Reynolds has defined ethos as “a complex set of characteristics constructed by a group, sanctioned by that group, and…recognizable to others who belong or who share similar values or experiences” (327). Reynolds is attempting to reconcile ethos with notions of postmodern subjectivity: ethos is thus conceptualized not as a stable quality possessed by the rhetor but as a relational location articulated in writing. However provisional and contingent such location may be in postmodern terms—Reynolds says, “it shifts and changes over time, across texts, and around competing spaces”—ethos, nonetheless, retains for Reynolds its meaning as guarantor of seriousness. As she puts it, “writers earn their rhetorical authority by being responsible—by stating explicitly their identities, positions or locations, and political goals” (330). Like many of us, Reynolds wants it both ways: she wants to register her understanding of the constructedness and flux of subjectivity, and at the same time she wants to conceptualize an ethical ground for authority.
