metarhetorical

Metarhetorical is an adjective used in rhetoric and literary criticism to describe discourse or analysis that concerns rhetoric itself. It denotes a level of reflection on persuasion, argument structure, audience reception, and the rules that govern rhetorical effect. Metarhetorical discourse treats rhetoric as a subject worthy of examination rather than simply as a vehicle for conveying content.

In practice, metarhetorical analysis looks at how a text reveals its own rhetorical construction, questions the aims or ethics of persuasion, or self-consciously foregrounds rhetorical devices. Examples include speeches or essays that acknowledge the audience’s awareness of persuasion, literary works that critique their own form, and political discourse that analyze or mock its own persuasive strategies.

Context and relationship to other concepts: Metarhetorical analysis is common in literary studies, political communication, and media theory. It overlaps with metadiscourse and metapragmatics, which study how language reflects on discourse more broadly, but metarhetorical work centers specifically on rhetoric as a phenomenon. The term is used with varying precision across fields; some scholars treat it as synonymous with a self-reflexive critique of rhetoric, while others use it to describe particular devices that draw attention to rhetorical processes.

Related topics include metadiscourse, metapragmatics, rhetoric, and discourse analysis. Its usage highlights how analysis can treat rhetorical activity as a subject worthy of critique in its own right.