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Show 20 networks. Let us discuss the implications of this intervention. Conceptualizing Subjectivity as a Network A networked orientation understands the world through its objects that become subjects through their relations. Objects, such as animals, people, and corporations, are never substances because they are always in motion, as fluid actors that constantly build alliances and construct networks that give them force. As will be explained in Chapter 2, a networked orientation to subjectivity positions rhetorical critics as cartographers charged with mapping the relations that keep subjective networks alive, and this changes how critics approach the subject, the text, and the audience. For now, though, it must be realized that subjectivity is an assemblage, or a network, that is multiple, fluid, and relational rather than singular, essential, and rational. In some ways, this perspective, drawn from Bruno Latour (2005/2007) and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1980/1987), is what Foucault was trying to accomplish in his work on the human subject. After all, Discipline & Punish and The History of Sexuality analyzed subjectivity from networked perspectives that empirically traced, rather than imposed, social relations. Yet at the end of the day, Foucault remains an epistemologist, which is why Deleuze (and Guattari) and Latour take Foucault to the next stage of philosophy by assuming relations exist on an ontological plane of consistency. Networks, relations, and forces are simply tools to help understand how the world actually works. A networked orientation to rhetoric and subjectivity invokes a form of pragmatism because it realizes how networks build relations to achieve maximum effectivity in their goals, objectives, or general purposes for proliferating. The study of pragmatism is indeed a rich philosophical tradition that is typically traced back to a few |
