ABSTRACT
Rhetoric is a centuries-old discipline, and there may be no clearer definition than Aristotle’s own, where he describes it as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” From classical Greece through the 1960s, rhetoricians had largely concerned themselves with “traditional” written and oral texts (e.g., a newspaper article or a political speech). However, in 1970, prominent figures in the field recommended that the study of rhetoric “‘may be applied to any human act, process, product or artifact … [that] may formulate, sustain, or modify attention, perceptions, attitudes, or behavior.” This chapter is an analysis of the rhetoric of veganism by examining the rhetorical positions taken and appeals made in a set of seminal texts including, but not limited to, Carol J. Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat, Laura Wright’s The Vegan Studies Project, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation , and Julia Feliz Brueck’s Veganism of Color. Using rhetorical strategies as entry points into analysis of the aforementioned texts, this chapter reflects the reach of rhetoric and its applicability as a theoretical lens to examine the discourse of veganism.
