Three dimensions in rhetorical conflict analysis: A topological model

Abstract

Conflict is omnipresent in human relations. So is rhetoric in conflict situations. Hence, there is a danger of taking conflict and its different forms of resolution for granted when we do rhetorical analysis. “Rhetoric” is often used as a general and non-scientific term in the social sciences; the same is the case for “conflict” in rhetorical scholarship. Hence, there is a need for concrete analytical tools. This article suggests a topological model to analyze three dimensions of rhetoric in conflict resolution, management or handling. Using “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, the famous last speech of Martin Luther King Jr., as an example, I use the model to give an analytic overview.