| Abstract: | This essay theorizes dissensual democracy as an event that requires both demonstration and critique of doxai. Jacques Rancière joins many theorists in rhetorical studies by arguing that democratic doxa is necessary for transformative collective politics. But Rancière famously dismisses the possibility that post-ideological approaches such as “critical rhetoric“ might contribute to democracy. Critique, however, has an important role to play in dissensual democracy. The political rhetoric of the anti-corporate Move to Amend shows how both demonstrations and critiques of doxai are required to produce the appearance of a democratic subject of enunciation, which, I argue, is a type of Deleuzean sense-event. |
