In "Rhetorical Agency as Emergent and Enacted," Marilyn M. Cooper argues that agency is "based in individuals' lived knowledge that their actions are their own" (421). The agents, who may or may not be aware of their own intentions, bring about changes through these actions. For Cooper, the crux of the agency debate seems to rest in the responsibility that agency demands of the agent. According to the article, all "concrete others" already have agency; instead of arguing for the empowerment of these agents, we must argue for the responsibility of the already empowered agent (443).
The discussion of agency in this week's readings reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Stranger Than Fiction. In the film, the main character, Harold Crick, begins hearing a voice narrating his mundane and unremarkable life as an IRS auditor. While trying to discover the origin of the voice, Harold meets a free-spirited baker named Ana who inspires him to live the life he always wanted. Eventually, Harold discovers that the mysterious voice belongs to reclusive author Karen Eiffel, whose works always result in the death of the main character.
Stranger Than Fiction: Harold and Karen Meet
Harold finds Eiffel and attempts to convince her not to kill him, but after reading the ending she has already written (but not typed), he decides that his death is necessary to save the life of a young boy. Eiffel ultimately decides not to kill Harold, however, because if a man knows he's going to die, but "dies willingly, knowing he could stop it, then isn't that the type of man you want to keep alive?"
The film's premise obviously opens it up to a whole host of implications that I don't have time to address in this blog post. The two I want to focus on are the idea of rhetorical responsibility and free will.
In a larger-than-life way, Karen Eiffel's words have an extreme form of rhetorical agency. At the beginning of the film, Karen is unconscious of the inescapability of her agency; after meeting Harold, however, she begins to realize the effects of her words. This realization instills her with a sense of responsibility and leads her to question how many other people she has killed as a result of her novels. After meeting Harold, Eiffel is torn between preserving the perfectly tragic ending she has already conceived for the novel and saving Harold's life.
Despite Eiffel's control over Harold's surroundings and knowledge of his thoughts, Harold does exude his own sense of agency. Harold's actions are not strictly dictated by the rhetorical situation or his past experiences, but rather, they "emerge from the ongoing process of his becoming the person he is, as he respond[s] to the world he encounter[s]" (426). Harold becomes more open to opportunities for living a rewarding life he makes choices based on the "larger narrative" of his life. Even after meeting Eiffel, Harold has the agency to decide his own fate and feels responsibility for the way his actions will affect others. He acts "intentionally and voluntarily," yet he is not the sole cause of what happens (439).
Harold's situation also relates to Cooper's discussion of free will. Harold does have free will in that he exercises the power to act. His actions, while "free," are never his own; they are influenced by the personal, historical, and societal (and in Harold's case, literary) context in which he performs them. Instead, Harold's freedom derives from his self-awareness of "having an experience while in the midst of it--of tacitly recognizing the sense of the unfolding experience without halting it or distancing [himself] from it" (440). In thinking about free will and agency from this perspective, Harold actually seems to have more agency after meeting Karen Eiffel and becoming aware of her involvement in his life. Harold recognizes her involvement in the situation and, rather than distancing himself from it, makes the decision pursue his own course of action within the experience. By doing so, he not only retains his own agency, but also makes himself responsible for the decisions that result from that agency.
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