Grady's 'New South': Polysemy and Multiple Audiences in Henry Grady's Speech - Prof. Joshu, Study notes of Communication

Download Grady's 'New South': Polysemy and Multiple Audiences in Henry Grady's Speech - Prof. Joshu and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! Civil War & Reconstruction: Henry Grady “The New South” COMM 327 American Oratory Grady’s “New South” Grady spoke third, after Talmage and Sherman Talmage presented an emotional encomium of the Union soldiers’ march home Sherman detailed his march home through Georgia, Grady’s home state Grady had to maneuver these very strong pro-North sentiments with their skepticism toward the South’s loyalty Grady’s “New South” “We fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, and in perfect frankness accept as final the arbitrament of the sword to which we had appealed. The South found her jewel in the toad’s head of defeat. The shackles that had held her in narrow limitations fell forever when the shackles of the negro slave were broken. Under the old regime the negroes were slaves to the South; the South was a slave to the system. The old plantation, with its simple police regulations and feudal habit, was the only type possible under slavery. Thus was gathered in the hands of a splendid and chivalric oligarchy the substance that should have been diffused among the people, as the rich blood, under certain artificial conditions, is gathered at the heart, filling that with affluent rapture but leaving the body chill and colorless.” Polysemy & Audience Effects Polysemy means “multiple meanings” and refers to the way in which a message can carry several different (and even contradictory) meanings for several audiences. Ceccarelli notes on the Northern response: “In the oration immediately following Grady's, General Schofield remarked that ‘the eloquent address to which you have just listened,’ shows ‘how completely the Army of the United States succeeded in disseminating those New- England ideas.’ In Schofield’s mind, Grady's speech represented the success of Northern occupation troops in reeducating the South.” (QJS 84:4, 406) Ceccarelli notes on the Southern response: “The Atlanta Constitution, Grady's own newspaper, described a speech in which Grady, ‘without faltering in his devotion to the memories of the old south, is likewise unfaltering in his devotion to the hopes of the new.’ To these Southern readers of the text, Grady's speech represented a faithful adjustment of Old South traditions to New South conditions.” (QJS 84:4, 406) Polysemy & Rhetorical Critics Given the multiple readings the immediate audience had of the speech, how does the rhetorical critic approach a justifiable analysis of what is occurring? What conclusions can be drawn from a speech that seeks to reach multiple conflicting audiences? Ceccarelli summarizes the readings given by several rhetorical critics: