Audience Rhetoric: Foundations and Construction — A Reading of the Rhetorical Project of Dr. Imad Abdel Latif

Abstract

The theory of Audience Rhetoric is regarded as one of the modern rhetorical projects that seeks to renew Arabic rhetorical studies by shifting the focus from the speaker to the audience and its actual responses. Dr. Imad Abdel Latif established this approach on the basis of a critical vision of constructive rhetoric, which had treated the addressee as an object of control and persuasion. Audience Rhetoric is concerned with studying verbal and non-verbal mass responses within both public and digital spheres, adopting discourse as a means of awareness, resistance, and liberation. Moreover, this theory has opened itself to multiple fields of knowledge, making it an interdisciplinary specialization that contributes to discourse analysis and to understanding the dynamics of contemporary communication.