The Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation theorizes how circumstances call discourse into being, defined by Bitzer through exigence, audience, and constraints.

Definition

The rhetorical situation is the complex of an exigence (an imperfection awaiting remedy through discourse), an audience capable of acting, and the constraints shaping a fitting rhetorical response.

Scope

This topic covers the concept of the rhetorical situation, introduced by Lloyd Bitzer in 1968 and contested by Richard Vatz and later by Barbara Biesecker. It treats the elements of exigence, audience, and constraints; the question of whether situations are objective or rhetorically constructed; and the relation of the concept to the classical notion of kairos, the opportune moment.

Core questions

• What conditions make discourse rhetorically appropriate or necessary?
• Do situations precede and determine rhetoric, or does rhetoric create situations?
• What counts as an exigence, and which exigences are rhetorical?
• How does the concept relate to kairos and timing?

Key concepts

• exigence
• audience
• constraints
• fitting response
• kairos

Key theories

Situation-controlled rhetoric

Bitzer argues that a rhetorical situation exists prior to and invites discourse, comprising an exigence that can be modified by persuasion, an audience of potential mediators, and constraints on the response.

Rhetoric-controlled situation

Vatz reverses Bitzer's priority, contending that exigences are not objective facts but are created by rhetors who select and frame events, making meaning rather than responding to it.

History

Bitzer's 1968 essay in Philosophy & Rhetoric proposed that situations, not speakers, are the source of rhetorical action, sparking one of the most cited debates in the field. Vatz's 1973 rejoinder asserted the rhetor's constitutive power, and Biesecker later reframed the dispute through poststructuralist theory, treating situations as sites of differance rather than fixed entities or pure constructions.

Debates

Objective situation versus rhetorical construction

The central controversy is whether exigence resides in the world and constrains the rhetor, or whether rhetors constitute exigence by selecting and interpreting events; later theorists reject the binary itself.

Key figures

• Lloyd Bitzer
• Richard Vatz
• Barbara Biesecker

Seminal works

• bitzer1968
• vatz1973

Frequently asked questions

What are exigence, audience, and constraints?

In Bitzer's scheme the exigence is the problem or imperfection that discourse seeks to address, the audience is those who can help resolve it, and constraints are the beliefs, facts, and circumstances that limit or shape an effective response.