Rhetoric and Values in Fiction: An Art-based Research

How to inspire new imaginaries in media and the arts? How to craft attractive contents that embark the audiences in a model of society where technological advancement align with democratic principles? How to represent AI technologies in fiction to eventually inspire ethical transformations? The question of how to craft these non-didactic fictions as opposed to fictions used for instruction or propaganda is a subject of research for the field of rhetoric (Booth 1983). In fact, despite rhetoric having always been viewed negatively in the history of philosophy, it is primarily a technique (technè) for discovering and inventing arguments that serve various functions, such as telling stories and conveying chosen values (Danblon 2013). Through the artistic practice of graphic novel writing which is known for its ability to offer critical input on real-world issues my research project questions how the rhetorical technique can eventually encourage the emergence of novel perspectives on AI technologies through fiction. I will thus investigate how to leverage identified rhetorical resources in order to place ethical values in front of the eyes (Pernot and Lévy 1997, Webb 2009) and to set them into motion (Pieters 2024) qualities that ancient rhetoricians have long-practiced and for which they developed highly- effective strategies that I will adapt to the medium of graphic novels. By employing both textual and visual rhetoric strategies, my objective will be to formulate hypotheses on how to create the effect of enargeia (rhetorical evidence), which is known to help an audience to envision a living action through imagination. It is related to the ability of making values more tangible, palpable, and persuasive by presenting them in a vivid and convincing manner (Webb 2009, Dainville and Donckier 2021). In other words, creating an effect of enargeia could help make ethical values more accessible and evoke an emotional or moral response from the audience (Pernot and Levy 1997, Webb 2009). Finally, I will also discuss the opportunities and challenges of the rhetorical technique in light of AI content generation tools. Given the importance of moral imagination for the future, and knowing that more and more artists and creators rely on AI tools in their creative processes, it is critical not blindly delegate the task of imagining the future to AI technologies. At the same time, a nuanced examination of the human-AI dynamic is essential for potentially optimizing our creative and imaginative faculties.