II. Fantasy theme criticism: A peroration

Wildlife-Based Recreation as Economic Windfall: A Rhetorical Analysis of Public Discourse on Birding

“…Critics (Mohrmann, 1982a(Mohrmann, , 1982bVatz & Weinberg, 1987) have noted the approach assumes communication effects such as the spread or chaining of rhetorical visions. These criticisms have been addressed to our satisfaction (Bormann, 1982a(Bormann, , 1982bBormann, Cragan, & Shields, 1994;Scharf, 1986).…”

Refiguring Fantasy: Imagination and Its Decline in U. S. Rhetorical Studies

“…63 For Mohrmann, in the idiom of fantasy, criticism became a descriptive enterprise that went nowhere, akin to an excited and "reckless" cowhand riding a "hobby-horse." 64 Bormann and his followers' many responses to these and similar charges have met all criticisms but the last. They argued that a specialized vocabulary provided "a set of clear and heuristic terms," and that the proof of their clarity and utility was in the research studies that the theory generated.…”

In Defense of Symbolic Convergence Theory: A Look at The Theory and Its Criticisms After Two Decades

“…To lay to rest the asserted but largely unsubstantiated charge that theorists developing SCT have not clarified their central presuppositions, we take this opportunity to explain these assumptions in detail. Farrell (1980), Gronbeck (1980, and Mohrmann (1982aMohrmann ( , 1982b indicted SCT for concentrating on developing the theory itself and on the research required to do so without clarifying the basic assumptions of the investigators. All the presuppositions were introduced by 1981 with the first five laid out by Bormann (1972).…”

“…For example, Ivie (1987) described the Force of Fantasy (Bormann, 1985b) as "a study that is indebted to the critics acumen more than his method" (p. 102), and Osborn (1986) said of the same work that "it is not always convincing that the critical insights derive from and depend upon the theory" (p. 205). Similarly, Mohrmann (1982b) asserted that "the best studies are not important because they are fantasy studies" (p. 313).…”

“…Shortly after that, FTA began to receive more scholarly scrutiny as the partial subject of a Speech Communication Association paper (Leff & Mohrmann, 1977), and the sole topic of an SCA "Seminar Program" in 1978, andCentral States Speech Association "Spotlight" program in 1980. Here, the reactive criticism began and continued in several articles (Mohrmann, 1980(Mohrmann, , 1982a(Mohrmann, , 1982bVatz & Weinberg, 1987), "state-ofthe-discipline" review essays (Black, 1980;Farrell, 1980;Gronbeck, 1980;Hart, 1986;Leff, 1980), book reviews (Farrell, 1982;hie, 1987;Osborn, 1986), and rhetorical asides in journal articles (Brummett, 1984;Goodall, 1983;Lucaites & Condit, 1985;Reid, 1983).…”