What is Corporeal Existence

In the rhetorical construction of identity, we are often tasked with analyzing how rhetoric either points to or creates a space for identity. This chapter would seek to move beyond that. This chapter seeks to analyze how ur-real rhetoric creates identity not through a textual sense. It creates an effect on our psyches. The exigence is no longer the over-riding guide for the identity construct. Rather, the rhetoric is called forth not just by the situation but instead by the sum total of the rhetorical effect on the bodies being changed. It is the totality of the milieu in which we find ourselves. This represents what can be considered to be a fundamental shift within identity theory: Heretofore, we seek to explain reality and ur-reality in terms of how it aligns/misaligns with the physical realm. This chapter examines World of Warcraft’s and Ultima Online’s impact not just on the lexical construction of rhetorical identity, but also on the somatic; we need to be looking as to how the body responds. The chapter attempts to discern where the somatic and the lexical construction of rhetorical identity intersect by applying theories from Black, Burke, and others.