RANDALL, Liam Caelyn

Fall 2021, 51.5, pages: 377-391

Consent as Rhetorical Ability in “The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield”

Abstract:

This essay draws on theories of rhetorical ability to analyze public discourse on sexual consent. By emphasizing the rhetoricity of disability, these theories underscore the environmental conditions of communication. Through an analysis of the discourse surrounding a controversial legal case, the author develops a rhetorical theory of consent that calls attention to the way that arrangements of power enable and constrain the communicative conditions that facilitate the possibility of consent.