10.1177/1532708605276909Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies • August 2005Ivie • Democratic Dissent and Rh orical Cr tique Democratic Dissent and the Trick of Rhetorical Critique

As an exercise in consubstantial rivalry (a notion adapted from Kenneth Burke), democratic dissent operates tactically to turn the tables on the pow-erful in a given cultural field of political tension (a perspective drawn from Michel de Certeau). Dissent rearticulates political relationships by an ongo-ing act of rhetorical critique inside an established framework of under-standing. The dissenter is a rhetorical trickster deploying metaphor as a principal heuristic of critique. The possibility of credible dissent relies on achieving a certain productive tension between affirming and disconcert-ing the political order—a double gesture of nonconforming solidarity—as can be illustrated in recent documentaries of dissent such as Uncovered: The War on Iraq