This constitutive dimension of character occurs simultaneously and in intimate connection with its use as an instrument of persuasion concerning specific issues. This construct allows King to criticize his target audience without alienating himself from it and also allows the “eavesdropping” black audience to discover a model for reconstructing their own sense of agency. Using Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a case study, we argue that the text develops a complex and nuanced construction of King’s character. This generative function of character becomes especially important in cases where suppressed groups attempt to find rhetorical means to alter their cir- cumstances. Traditional conceptions of rhetorical ethos treat character exclusively as an instru- ment of persuasion, but the persona of the rhetor often functions as a means of con- stituting the self in relation to a complex network of social and cultural relationships.
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