Abstract
Representations of biomedicine are found widely in popular culture: doctor shows, rage virus outbreaks, zombies, pandemics, news reports of exotic illnesses, and so forth. This essay offers a way to understand the rhetorical effects of such representations on audiences. Not every text that represents biomedical phenomena will be at a literal, expository level. Depictions of rage viruses must be fictional and literary. Yet they may have powerful rhetorical effects on audiences. The essay explores a method of homological analysis that can show how such texts may influence an audience rhetorically at the level of form, and across widely disparate texts and experiences.
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Notes
- 1.
Form may be distinguished from the content or information offered by a text. A funeral eulogy, for instance, is expected to follow a certain form, yet the information imparted in each eulogy will vary widely according to the deceased, the circumstances, and so forth. Sheer information is hard to learn, but if it can be put into formal patterns it becomes easier. So, for instance, the colors of the rainbow themselves may be hard to memorize, but if they are put into the form of a name, which is a pattern we all learn, they are easier: Roy G. Biv, for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
- 2.
Homology here is, of course, developed out of “homo,” or same. And “logy” is developed out of logos, or a rational system of understanding and thought. When different experiences, objects, and texts follow the same (homo) pattern or rationale (logos), they are homologous.
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Brummett, B. (2019). Rhetoric of Popular Culture and Representations of Biomedicine. In: Görgen, A., Nunez, G.A., Fangerau, H. (eds) Handbook of Popular Culture and Biomedicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90677-5_7
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