Exigence

 It means, what does this situation want?

With any luck, this horrible word won’t come up in your class. It’s really not very helpful in any real rhetorical situation, and scholars debate over what it means. But previous AP English Language tests have carried it, and your teacher or a text might bring it up. So here goes. We’ll try to make this painless.

Exigence (the word was made up by a rhetorician named Lloyd Bitzer in 1968) comes from the Latin for “demand.” It basically has to do with what the situation requires. An exigence is something that can be fixed through rhetoric. When the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded in 1986, the tragedy wasn’t a rhetorical exigence. No rhetoric could bring it back. On the other hand, Americans were feeling sad and defeated. That was an exigence, one that President Reagan addressed in a famous speech.

Or imagine your principal fires one of your favorite teachers. You might feel compelled to stage a protest or speak at the school board meeting. The situation demands a fix. That demand is the exigence.

So why is the word so horrible? Besides confusing students around the world, it just isn’t that helpful. You’ll find it much easier to read a rhetorical situation if you simply pay attention to two things: 

 Who’s the audience?

What does the rhetor—the speaker or writer—want?

Suppose you want to borrow a parent’s car. Your audience is the parent, presumably. (Unless you first want to talk a sibling into going to bat for you. Cool sibling!) And who’s the rhetor? Why, you, dear! And what do you, the rhetor, want? Well, duh. The exigence is what you want to achieve. 

Now, exigence is mildly useful in understanding the important concept of kairos, the art of opportunity. Lloyd Bitzer said that an exigence has to be urgent; it takes place at a “compelling moment.” In classical rhetoric (as in real-world persuasion), that’s a persuasive opportunity. Rhetoricians call this a kairotic moment. (To learn more about kairos, see the chapter “Seize the Occasion” in Thank You for Arguing.

Often your urgency (must have car!) fails to jibe with a favorable opportunity (parents in a good mood). Kairos encompasses both aspects of a rhetorical situation: the rhetor’s need, and the audience’s receptiveness.

So now you have the basics of exigence. But if you want to be persuasive, check out kairos.

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