Exigence (rhetoric)

Exigence (UK /ˈɛksɪdʒᵊnsˌˈɛɡzɪ-/, US /ˈɛksədʒəns/) is used in reference to an issue or situation that leads to demands for rhetoric speech or writing. The term comes from the Latin word for “urgency", and also commonly refers to “exigency,” which refers to an urgent need or demand.^[1]

Prominence in Lloyd F. Bitzer’s “The Rhetorical Situation”

The term came to popularity following the perspective essay of Lloyd F. Bitzer concerning rhetorical situations. In his essay, Bitzer insisted that “Any exigence is an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be,” and that “In any rhetorical situation there will be at least one controlling exigence which functions as the organizing principle: it specifies the audience to be addressed and the change to be effected.” Bitzer argued that rhetoric is purely situational and a result or answer to an exigence as “rhetoric comes into existence as a response to situation [exigence], in the same sense that an answer comes into existence in response to a question’.^[2] Juxtaposing, Richard Vatz challenged Bitzer’s position and suggested that rhetoric was not a product of exigence, but, rather, the cause for it.^[3]

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