Foucault, ethics and a critical rhetoric

This thesis argues that Foucault's later work on ethics has not yet been fully incorporated into a critical rhetoric. I contend that by including Foucault's concept of ethics, or the care of the self, a critical rhetoric can begin to identify the work one does on the self as a work of social change.;In this thesis, I examine two adolescent oral diaries that were aired on National Public Radio. I explore the rhetorical strategies that adolescents employ to construct an identity. In this exploration, I investigate theories of liminality, power/resistance, and Foucault's ethical fourfold to demonstrate the importance of self-transformation to a critical rhetoric.