What insights and advantages do rhetorical approaches offer over other methods of exploring social and political discourse? This article aims to clarify the contribution of rhetorical analysis by reflecting on the distinctive, hermeneutic dimensions of public speech. Public speaking is, accordingly, viewed as a practice of assembling interpretations to offer argumentative stances for speakers and their audiences. Central here is the temporal dimension to making an interpretation. Analysing rhetoric involves, minimally, grasping discourse, on the one hand, as concretely situated in response to proximate dilemmas and, on the other hand, as a medium to move beyond the situation towards a future. Following John Caputo’s hermeneutic reading of Derrida, I argue that, examined rhetorically, public speech enacts a discursive ‘negotiation’ of past and future, intertwining conditional – and hence partially calculable – positions with an ‘unconditional promise’ to prepare for what comes. Although compatible with other approaches, rhetorical analysis is uniquely attuned to this intrinsically ethical and political quality of discursive action.

中文翻译：

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修辞学、话语和公共演讲的诠释学

与其他探索社会和政治话语的方法相比，修辞方法提供了哪些见解和优势？本文旨在通过反思公共演讲的独特的解释学维度来阐明修辞分析的贡献。因此，公开演讲被视为一种组合解释以向演讲者及其听众提供论证立场的做法。这里的核心是做出解释的时间维度。分析修辞至少涉及掌握话语，一方面，它具体地定位于应对最近的困境，另一方面，它是一种超越情境走向未来的媒介。继约翰·卡普托对德里达的诠释学解读之后，我认为，经过修辞研究，公开演讲制定了对过去和未来的话语“谈判”，将有条件的——因此是部分可计算的——立场与“无条件承诺”交织在一起，为即将到来的事情做好准备。尽管与其他方法兼容，但修辞分析独特地适应了这种话语行动的内在道德和政治品质。