Dissent, Symbolic Behavior and Rhetorical Strategies.

by Haig A. Bosmajian

This book examines the rhetorical strategies of dissenters -- their communicative and persuasive uses of such symbolic behavior as sit-ins, boycotts, picketing, demonstrations, confrontations, draft-card burnings, flag burnings, black armbands, and civil disobedience. Such symbolic behavior sometimes complements the oral and written persuasion of the dissenters; at other times, this symbolic behavior is successful rhetorical strategy despite (or because of) the lack of verbal communication.

328 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 1980

About the author

Haig Aram Bosmajian was an author, lecturer, and professor, who received the 1983 Orwell Award for his book The Language of Oppression (1974). Haig Bosmajian received a PhD in 1960 from Stanford University. His work has explored rhetoric and the freedom of speech.[2] Bosmajian was professor emeritus at the University of Washington, in the Speech/Communications Department, where he taught since 1965. He was married for 57 years to Hamida Bosmajian, also a published author and a professor at nearby Seattle University.

Haig and Hamida Bosmajian wrote the textbook, The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement (1969), which has been published as a student textbook to analyze strategies of rhetoric.