Between text and context: Toward a rhetoric of contextual reconstruction

Through an exploration of possible forms of the reflexive text‐context relationship, we offer a critical perspective to understand an array of problematic situations: the unspeakable, the ineffable, the radical paradox, and the paradox of authority. Strategies of non‐participation, desecration, and contextual reconstruction are reviewed and Senator Edward Kennedy's “Television Statement to the People of Massachusetts” and Abraham Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address” are reassessed.