Affect, as a term of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

, is the responsive,

emotional Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. E ...

feeling ( affect) that precedes cognition. Affect differs from

pathos Pathos (, ; plural: ''pathea'' or ''pathê''; , for "suffering" or "experience") appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a term used most often in rhetoric (in which it is c ...

as described by

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

as one of the modes of proof and pathos as described by Jasinski as an emotional appeal because it is “the response we have to things before we label that response with feelings or emotions.” In further exploring this term, scholars recognized affect’s rhetorical role in literature, photography, marketing and memory. In 2012, Rogers described how author

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

used the structure of his work, ''

The Souls of Black Folk ''The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches'' is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. The book contains several essays on r ...

'', to affect his audience into feeling

shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

. In 2016, Brunner and Deluca proposed the term ''

affective Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion or mood. History The modern conception of affect developed in the 19th century with Wilhelm Wundt. The word comes from the German ''Gefühl'', meaning "feeling." ...

winds'' to describe “the force of images that moves people to engage and interact by exploring the affective potency of visual arguments.” Affective winds were part of the rhetorical persuasiveness of images shared through

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. In a different sense, Harold described how the

Target Corporation Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

’s advertising used

aura Aura most commonly refers to: * Aura (paranormal), a field of luminous multicolored radiation around a person or object * Aura (symptom), a symptom experienced before a migraine or seizure Aura may also refer to: Places Extraterrestrial * 1488 ...

and affect to democratize the appearance of some products. Affect has also been identified as a conduit through which rhetorical memories can be internalized. Drawing from

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, some rhetorical studies of affect have followed Martin

Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

's articulation of ''

Dasein ''Dasein'' () (sometimes spelled as Da-sein) is the German word for 'existence'. It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger uses the expression ''Dasein'' to refer to the experience of being that is p ...

'' which posits "affect" as the ground of reason. OthersPruchnic, Jeff and Kim Lacey. "The Future of Forgetting: Rhetoric, Memory, Affect. "Rhetoric Society Quarterly" 41.4 (2011), 1-23. follow

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

and post-Heideggerian insights to follow affect's influence on rhetorical canons and

digital rhetoric Digital rhetoric can be generally defined as communication that exists in the digital sphere. As such, digital rhetoric can be expressed in many different forms —including but not limited to text, images, videos, and software. Due to the incr ...

References

{{reflist Rhetorical techniques