Visual Rhetoric: In Retrospective Prospect, under advance contract with the Parlor Press Visual Rhetoric Series, will explore how visual rhetoric, as a field of study, has evolved over the past ten years; more specifically, the book will consider the state of visual rhetoric since the early 2010s, then look at where the field is today, and finally consider where it may head in the future. It will provide an annotated or curated history of visual rhetoric that contextualizes its shifts and turns over time and includes a forward-looking component. In the context of these explorations, the book will also show how Kenneth Burke’s notion of identification, as well as portions of Krista Ratcliffe’s (2006) theory of rhetorical listening, which can be said to extend aspects of Burke’s theory of identification, can work to inform and enhance contemporary understandings of visual rhetoric. In short, Visual Rhetoric: In Retrospective Prospect will tell the story of visual rhetoric—it will paint a culturally- and historically-contextualized picture of the field that is meant to engage readers new to the field but familiar with rhetorical theory generally, and to serve as a touchstone for scholars whose work more directly engages visual rhetoric.

Amy D. Propen, 2023