English 680V: Visual Rhetoric in a Technological Age (Purdue)

I'm working on a paper about snobbiness and cultural capital for Pat's Public Rhetoric class, which lead me to notice an interesting visual rhetoric of space in a book store this weekend. It was a fairly large store, plenty of different categorized sections. What was interesting was the placement of the Literature section. The store's check out counter was a big raised oppressive affair, truly signifying: you the customer can not come back here. Which is fine. But the lit section was basically located behind this counter, although there was a small walkway to the side of the counter that you could use to reach it (the section was also next to the the employee's only door, another sign of restricted access). I think the point is obvious: the placement of the section very much broadcasts: this section is not for you, you're not going to care, we just have to have it, and you need to cross a threshold to get here. Fascainating.