Non-Discursive Rhetoric: Image and Affect in Multimodal Composition Author: Joddy Murray, PhD Publisher: State University of New York Press, Albany ISBN: 978-0-7914-7676-5

Non-Discursive Rhetoric: Image and Affect in Multimodal Composition is an in-depth and reliable book for those in academia, especially those in composition, as well as those who are interested in multimodality and non-discursive rhetoric. In his book, Joddy Murray explains the technological advances that have the potential to create new languages that are different from the spoken and printed word, such as graphics, photos, images, hypermedia, film, typography, and other modes of expression. Murray posits that these modes require their own theory of language and symbolization that contain emotion, ambiguity, simultaneity, and multiple layers of meaning. He also asserts that everything is multimodal: print-based words, symbols, and various pictures and images. Murray’s strong introduction portrays his theory of non-discursive (image-based) rhetoric and how it is suited for the composition classroom. Every piece of communication has rhetoric at its heart, and according to Murray, students must learn how the imagination is required for logical, reasoned, claim-based arguments (p. 1). Therefore, he asks the question of how teachers teach these things when most rhetorical training focuses on discursive (word-based), printoriented rhetoric (p. 1). Murray also makes the claim that language is much more than words. Language, according to Murray, includes non-discursive forms of meaning-making, such as images, but especially emotion. Emotion is integral to inventing and composing, as Murray considers the purpose of his theory to be how we want people to feel while they are learning. Murray also highlights the connectedness between cognitive processes and development, and production, as well as imagination. Overall, he makes the astute and impressive claim that this book exhibits this very “will-to-symbolize because within, before, and among all of the discursive language in this text are images within my own mind/body, and these images indicate a clear direction toward a composing model and a writing theory” (p. 55). This thorough introduction leads the reader into five chapters that contain information on multimodality, symbolization, multimedia, and pedagogy. It is through all of these individual chapters that Murray’s goal, of making those in academia at ease with incorporating image into composition, as well as demonstrating non-discursive rhetoric’s significance in the composition and pedagogy community, comes to life. In Murray’s first chapter, “Non-discursive Symbolization,” he begins to establish a problematic theme that identifies how language is the sole vehicle for the communication of ideas and the main way in which textual production is theorized. Murray, after problematizing this assertion, claims that terms such as “discursive” and “non-discursive” allow for another way to discuss language, or rather, symbolization. According to Murray, this understanding of discursive (word-based) and non-discursive (image-based) elements, within a composition classroom, will allow for a more integrated view of composing; one that encourages the powers of imagination not just for creative writing, but