Points de sensorium,the stank,and the communication of bullshit

Rhetorical scholarship has recently made significant contributions to an emerging “meta-field” that we might loosely call “shit studies.” In this essay, we review scholarship pertaining to the study of “shit” in communication. Specifically, we review current trends in the theoretical orientation of shit studies by advancing the ideas of points de sensorium and/as the stank of rhetoric. Drawing on theories of the point de capiton (quilting point), we are able to note some commonalities in the study of shit in communication scholarship. The stank and the points de sensorium speak to a theorization of affect and bullshit-texts.