Definition
“an issue, problem, or situation that causes or prompts someone to write or speak.”
-Online Etymology Dictionary. 3 May 2020, www.etymonline.com/word/exigence#:~:text=mid%2D15c.%2C%20%22what,)%20%2B%20agere%20%22to%20set%20in. Accessed 29 Aug. 2022.
Informal Definition
The driving point that causes the literary piece to be made. Example: a book about significant event after that event has occurred
Etymology
mid-15c., "what is needed" (in a given situation), from Old French exigence or directly from Latin exigentia "urgency," from exigentem (nominative exigens), present participle of exigere "demand, require, enforce," literally "to drive or force out," also "to finish, measure," from ex "out" (see ex-) + agere "to set in motion, drive, drive forward; to do, perform" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move"). From 1580s as "state of being urgent."
-Thought Co. 16 July 2019, www.thoughtco.com/exigence-rhetoric-term-1690688. Accessed 29 Aug. 2022.
Mohil Kapadia & Senming Hsia