ABSTRACT

Chapter Six: “Rhetoric, Performance, and Pedagogy,” concludes the book with some suggestions for an embodied approach to rhetorical pedagogy. Augusto Boal’s Forum Theater and Dwight Conquergood’s performance-based approach to ethnography provide instructors, students, actors, and directors with a framework for understanding critical discourse perspectives in the rhetoric classroom or theatrical rehearsal space. With the understanding that Butler provides a theoretical backdrop for exploring CDP in the classroom or on stage, the chapter offers a scaffolded selection of assignments (that can be adapted for the rehearsal space), which were prepared for an online drama class in the summer of 2020. The assignments are multimodal and culminate in a filmed project whereby students make directorial choices, in terms of blocking and staging, based on the CDP concepts explored in this book. The chapter concludes with further suggestions for other critical discourse analytical concepts that complement an embodied pedagogy.