Rhetoric in Intercultural Contexts identifies and confronts the challenges facing critics of rhetorical action when the focus of study contains a mixture of cultural traditions and practices. The chapters in this book are both reflections on the limitations of monocultural critical approaches and visions of intercultural critical possibilities. Part I introduces the rationale for the book's theme and provides an overview of chapters. Part II contains six chapters that connect specific critical perspectives – postmodern, Africalogical, ethnographic, historical – to intercultural rhetorical criticism. Part III contains four chapters that examine rhetoric in intercultural contexts. Part IV is the Forum, in which William J. Starosta, a leading proponent of intercultural rhetorical studies, describes his efforts to develop attention to intercultural rhetoric. John C. Hammerback and Raka Shome respond to his framework and to the need for rhetorical critics to adopt an intercultural sensibility.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rhetoric at the Intercultures - Alberto González and Dolores V Tanno PART TWO: PERSPECTIVES ON RHETORIC AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION The Cultures of Rhetoric - Robert Shuter Situating Rhetoric in Cultural Discourses - Donal Carbaugh and Karen Wolf Africalogical Theory Building - Ronald L Jackson II Positioning the Discourse Opening the Future - Raymie E McKerrow Postmodern Rhetoric in a Multicultural World Asking New Questions of Old Texts - Vanessa Bowles Beasley Presidential Rhetoric and the Demands of Multiculturalism Some Elementary Methodological Reflections on the Studying of the Chinese Rhetorical Tradition - Mary M Garret PART THREE: RHETORIC IN INTERCULTURAL CONTEXTS George Bush Goes to Rio - Taria Rai Peterson and Kathi Lynn Pauley Implications for US Participation in Global Environmental Governance Rhetoric and Intercultural Friendship Formation - Elisabeth Gareis Water-Related Figurative Language in the Rhetoric of Mencius - Ringo Ma The Cultural Perspective of a Public Health Facility for Oklahoma American Indians - Lynda Dee Dixon and Paul M Shaver Architectural Change as Rhetoric PART FOUR: FORUM: DEVELOPING FRAMEWORKS FOR INTERCULTURAL RHETORICAL ANALYSIS On the Intersection of Rhetoric and Intercultural Communication - William J Starosta A Twenty-Five Year Personal Retrospective Future Research on Rhetoric and Intercultural Communication - John C Hammerback Moving Forward from Starosta′s ′Intersection′ A Response to Bill Starosta′s ′On the Intersection of Rhetoric and Intercultural Communication′ - Raka Shome Response to Commentaries by Hammerback and Shome - William J Starosta