Abstract

This work is a response to a call by previous scholars and teachers of communication to formulate and articulate an ethical and humane theory of communication. The goal is to present a well-grounded analytical framework, or grid, and metaphorically place it over the works of Walker Percy and then sift from them his theory of communication. The end result is a theory of man. The intent of this work is to answer the question: what is Walker Percy's philosophy and theory of written language and communication? Thus, this study argues that Percy's many essays, letters, speeches and other communicative acts offer the basis for a reasonable and ethical theory of human discourse. From a mature body of significant works by a single author critics should be able to derive another author's theory of communication even if not explicitly expressed in their body of work. This premise is based on the assumption that communicators can not NOT communicate their metaphysics, their ideas of the nature of man, and how we derive true, and value-laden ideas regarding the Good, the Beautiful and the True. The methodology is, at times, a close textual analysis, and, at other times, a broad, sweeping look at a rhetor's communicative theory. This work examines past and ongoing Percy scholarship, from literary to philosophical to semiotic analysis, with the hope of synthesizing scholarly thought while maintaining faithful adherence to the construction and articulation of Percy's theory of communication. This is neither a singular literary analysis, nor a vast philosophical debate, nor a microscopic semiotic investigation, but rather a necessary dabbling, or gleaning, in all areas while staying focused on the eventual synthesis of his communicative theory. Metaphorically, this work sees through a wide-angle philosophic and communicative lens with welcome moments of interchange through a theory-driven telephoto lens. This analysis pragmatically synergises criticism and theory. This communicative philosophical investigation examines the philosophies and communicative styles and practices of Walker Percy through an historical-critical approach focusing on the texts of books, articles, essays, speeches and interviews by and about Percy