Resumen de Identification by antithesis: the turner diaries as constitutive rhetoric

Charles Goehring, George Dionisopoulos

• This article examines the infamous white supremacist novel,The Turner Diaries. Our analysis illustrates the rhetorical force of a fictional novel, as well as the author's efforts to constitute an audience that avoided any overt attempt to reveal the nature of that audience. We suggest that the constitutive functioning of the novel is most productively explored by examining various elements of the novel as an example of what Burke termed “identification by antithesis.” We close by offering insights into how this case study, and the use of identification by antithesis, extends our understanding of the constitutive functions served by rhetoric.