The documentary program "Confusion in a Jar," shown on the PBS series NOVA, is
analyzed in terms of rhetorical theory. The program is characterized as an instance of
the genre of epideictic rhetoric. However, unlike most studies of epideictic that emphasize
the way the genre builds communion, in this case the negative side of epideictic as the
rhetoric of exclusion or excommunication is investigated, especially its rhetorical
function of closing off discussion. The program is shown to follow six episodes of an
excommunication narrative modeled on the narrative structure of the New Testament
Gospels.
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