Aspekte van Fisher se narratiewe teorie as vertrekpunt vir 'n retoriese kritiekbenadering tot die De la Rey-liriek?

Abstract

In this discussion, it is pointed out that Bok van Blerk’s song, De la Rey has had an unusual impact on a large number of South Africans. It unleashed a fierce debate in the media in which interested parties offered divergent explanations in sometimes reasonable and sometimes malicious ways for the reasons why De la Rey grabbed and fascinated people. Against the background of the turbulence in the De la Rey debate, one may ask, from the perspective of the science of persuasive communication, about the reasons that contribute to the fact that the De la Rey lyric has such an enormous power of persuasion. Seeing that Fisher (1987) has addressed the role of  both logical reason and value-laden good reasons in his narrative paradigm theory, this discussion takes up aspects of his theory as it pertains to the abovementioned question. Attention will be paid to the ontological, epistemological and axiological presuppositions of the theory. Relevant basic, structural and evaluative concepts are explained. Although the theory is useful in various ways in the relevant field, it is especially the criteria for
narrative rationality, i.e. the requirements that holds for narrative probability and narrative fidelity, that arguably can be used as a starting point for a rhetorical-critical approach to rhetorical acts in the lyric of De la Rey.