Rhetorical inquiry offers a mode of reading and writing that is premised upon (for Kenneth Burke) unspoken, often unspeakable motives and (for Jacques Lacan) impossible desire so that rhetorical analysis, in Lacan???s words, ???impl[ies] in the text what it itself neglected.??? The result is a position from which all events (spoken, written, acted, whatever) are present and contingent acts that re