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Article: THEORY IN THE IRONIC MODE: A REVIEW OF HAUSER'S VERNACULAR VOICES.(Review)
- Article from:
- Argumentation and Advocacy
- Article date:
- March 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 American Forensic Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Gerard Hauser's Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking theoretical discussion of public opinion and the public sphere. Hauser rightly disputes the "authority" we grant to opinion polls, and he aspires to develop a "rhetorical" alternative for discovering and communicating public opinion. Regarding "discourse as the predominant and authoritative data" from which we should infer how publics, public spheres, and public opinion "form and function" (11), he concludes with four case studies illustrating how we might "listen" to "vernacular voices." In so brief a response, I cannot begin to summarize the ...