Disruptive Communication in Political Campaigning: On the Rhetoric of Metanoic Reflexivity

Communicative acts that deliberately disrupt how an audience understands them as either fiction or nonfiction are well-known phenomena. Still, the rhetoric of such disruptions has yet to be systematically investigated. This essay treats the experience of such disruptions as a distinct form of reflexivity, conceptualizing it as metanoic reflexivity. Drawing on recent work on fictionality theory and on theories of metanoia, the essay uses this concept to describe the reading effect that is produced when a rhetor uses nonconventional forms of fictionality to disrupt how an audience ascribes relevance to a communicative act. Through readings of Democratic campaign rhetoric from the US presidential election of 2020, the essay directs attention to how this reflexivity has moved from artistic practices to the communicative mainstream, investigates how it operates, and discusses its potential deliberative ramifications.