Rhetorical Analysis of Publication

Rhetorical Analysis of Publication Venues Project

By Christina Mastroeni

The publication venue I chose is Defunct: A Literary Repository for the Ages.

1.   Defunct serves as an online publications based in Iowa City. Its interests lie in various forms of nonfiction such as literary, radio, video, and graphic. Defunct features works from Joe Wenderoth, Ander Monson, David Shields, Lia Purpura, Roxane Gay, Joe Bonomo, Dinty W. Moore, Elizabeth Kadetsky, Chris Offutt amongst others.

Defunct is listed as publishing one of the 100 Best Pieces of Journalism by the Atlantic. In addition to this prestigious honor, they also hold readings and events at the AWP Conferences. In regards to the type of essays accepted, under their “What We Want” section, it states, “Borne of the idea that strong, condensed nonfiction can resurrect the dead, salvage the past and, perhaps most importantly, quell the existential unease of nostalgia.” There seems to be a different theme for each issue of Defunct. The last three issues had themes consist of travel, change, and politics.

2. Defunct’s niche is in short essays. They do not accept essays over 1,000 words. Their audience seems to be people interested in the past and obsolete. Defunct does not carry news breaking articles. If they did, they would be what is called “a day late, and a dollar short.” I believe the journal is not only for writers but also readers. The magazine recently changed their Editor in Chief two issues prior to their most recent one. The new Editor in Chief is Amy Butcher who writes a Letter From the Editor in biannual issues. The majority of the authors in this magazine are of both male and female gender.

3. Analysis of Essays

• Subject matter: Defunct's pieces vary depending on the theme or mentioning in the letter from the editor. In their last issues, the overall theme seems to be travel. Delving into this theme, the stories talk about subjects such as coming of age, death, lost love, and understanding, among others.

• Voice/Tone: Many of the tones in Defunct’s pieces are intimate. They touch areas of people's lives that are uncomfortable to talk about; it does not seem like information people would share on a day-to-day basis. I also noticed that a lot of the readings talk of subjects that are defunct - no longer existing or functioning - in nature.

• Form: I noticed that the forms in Defunct seem to be a lot of narration. In many cases, it is the author who is showing his/her audience. I noticed that the authors use segmentation in both short and long paragraphs. It is used to distinguish scene changes, dialogue, and periods of time. As far as experimental writing goes, I see more of this with the nonliterary pieces. A lot of the literary work is easy to understand and did not appear too poetic in form (with a few exceptions).

• Artistry: In regards to artistry, if the scale is still 1 - 5, I would say a 1.5/2, since Defunct states that they admire concise reading with not many words. I thought the writing would be much more poetic. In reality, the works were very comprehensive. I did not find myself going to extremes to understand the pieces like reading the pieces multiple times and creating venn diagrams as an analysis tool.

• Length: Defunct takes a variety of different types of Creative Nonfiction (e.g. Literary, graphic, video). Their literary pieces are all short essays, none of which consisting of more than 1,000 words.

Defunct is open to various types of publications, from literary, to video, to graphics. In fact, in their form section under submissions they state, “If you got it, we want it.” The editors recommend "highly concise writing" for their publication.

The submissions should be based on theme of magazine issue. The theme for their next issue is the predictions of defunctness. Submissions for Defunct are acceptable only online through their Submishmash site. If an author submits one piece, it is asked that he/she does not submit an additional work until he/she has received word on the first.  Although the magazine create biannual issues, the only deadline listed on the submission page is for literary essays which is February 1, 2015. Currently there is no date available for multimedia essays, or featured artist pieces. Each submission is $3 for all categories.

Check it out here!