Title: Encountering Material Rhetorics in the Ruins of Saturn.
Authors: Kutnicki, Saul
Abstract: As interests in material rhetoric continue to evolve among communication scholars, questions persist about how durability impacts the rhetorical dimensions of objects. To more fully understand how such objects participate in suasive activity during their lifetimes, I examine multiple aspects of material rhetoric in an encounter with the ruins of an abandoned Saturn dealership. By seeking ways to perceive how such a desolate place speaks and advancing a concept of ruin rhetoric that is sensitive to matters of time and durability, I argue that Saturn's ruins assemble a rhetorical perspective of a distinctively "American" car company and its consumers.
Subjects: AUTOMOBILE industry; CONSUMERISM; RHETORIC; ARCHAEOLOGICAL excavations; CONSUMERS; ANTIQUITIES; CONSUMER culture theory
Publication: Western Journal of Communication, 2024, Vol 88, Issue 4, p802
ISSN: 1057-0314
Publication type: Academic Journal
DOI: 10.1080/10570314.2024.2324384

Encountering Material Rhetorics in the Ruins of Saturn.

Kutnicki, Saul