English 691-01: History of Rhetoric--Enlightenment through Contemporary
Return to Fall 2001 Syllabi On-Line
Fall 2001: Thursdays, 3:30-6:20 p.m.
Instructor: Nancy Myers
334-5484 or nancymyers@uncg.edu or McIver 110
Office Hours: T 12:30-2 p.m., W 12-3, & Th 9:00-10:30 or by appointment
A map is not the territory. Alfred Korzybski Science and Sanity "Supplement III" 1948
Consider the difference between these two questions:
What is the rhetoric of this poem?
Is this poem a work of rhetoric?
In the first case, rhetoric is assumed to be a function of poems, all of which will exhibit some manifestation of rhetoric. In this sense rhetoric is considered to be a property of discourse, like grammar, that cannot be present in some form. In the second case, however, rhetoric is assumed to be a genre or discourse: some poems are rhetorical, some are not. Rather than a property of all discourse, rhetoric is taken to be a distinguishing feature of some kinds of discourse. This is not a trivial confusion. John T. Gage "On 'Rhetoric' and 'Composition'" 1991
The person who understands approaches the work with his own already formed worldview, from his own viewpoint, from his own position. . . . The person who understands must not reject the possibility of changing or even abandoning his already prepared viewpoints and positions. It the act of understanding, a struggle occurs that results in mutual change and enrichment.
M. M. Bakhtin "From Notes Made in 1970-71"
[T]hey [New Historicists] appear to have turned to history, less for information about that literature of which they are students, than for the kind of knowledge that a specifically historical approach to its study might yield. What they have discovered, however, is that there is no such thing as a specifically historical approach to the study of history, but a variety of such approaches, at least as many as there are positions on the current ideological spectrum; that, in fact, to embrace a historical approach to the study of anything entails or implies a distinctive philosophy of history; and that, finally, one's philosophy of history is a function as much of the way one construes one's own special object of scholarly interest as it is of one's knowledge of "history" itself. Hayden White "New Historicism: A Comment" 1989
Focus:
Although incorporating only 300 years of coverage, this course illustrates 1) rhetoric's dramatic inroads in to many areas of disciplinary study today, 2) rhetoric's continuing role in understanding the self and society, and 3) rhetoric's slippery relationship with other types of discourse theory. Instead of following a chronology, this course works thematically examining various intersections across time. Divided into segments the first investigates issues of rhetoric and society--public discourses, religion, and technology; the second explores rhetoric and knowledge, particularly disciplinary knowledge--language/discourse, education, literary theory, and history; the last considers issues of rhetoric and the individual--the mind, the body, and writing/teaching. I chose not to pair the readings to be alike; rather, I am using them as a way to talk about differences of approach and thinking--the fluidity of and diversity within rhetoric, not its continuity or constancy.
Readings:
Most of the readings for this course are on e-reserve and full citations are in the schedule. A few texts will be handed out. There is only one required text. I chose to go with breadth rather than depth, because I believe that in a course, where in 300 years almost as many rhetoricians cohabitated, we should explore the diversity and range rather than focus on the few. Rhetoric speaks to all of us and our conditions not just the few. Even with some breadth, this set of readings constructs only one history or rhetoric, when many others are just as valid. If you would like to read another rhetorician and a specific text in a particular week, please say so and do so. Substitution is fine; deletion is not.
The required text:
The Rhetoric of Western Thought, 7th ed. James L. Golden, Goodwin F. Berquist, and William E. Coleman. Dubuque IO: Kendall/Hunt, 2000.
Oral and Written Requirements:
Weekly Reading Responses: Each class period, you need to bring a 400-word response to the assigned readings, preferably word-processed. (So that you know, the first page of this policy sheet has over 515 words on it.) Twelve responses are set in the schedule. These responses ask you to actively engage in the discussions, histories, and topics of the texts, so you may focus on a specific issue in one reading or on connections you made across texts and across weeks. As long as you respond to what you are reading, thinking, and discussing in this class you are doing this right. Sometimes we will share your responses in class, but I will respond to them weekly.
Encyclopedia Entries: Each participant provides two dictionary/encyclopedia entries on key figures from the last 300 years and chosen from an extensive list, which we will add to. This entry falls between 500-1000 words, which includes the bibliography. The entry should include biographical and/or professional/career information, information on the breadth of her/his work including cross-disciplinary work/genres, and specific points about the rhetorical theories of the theorist. In other words, what should we know about this person's rhetorical perspective and approach. Your bibliography should include 2-5 major works by the rhetorician and 3 sources for further information about the rhetorician and her/his works. Besides the resources you will learn about in Nancy Fogarty's library workshop, I have put several books on reserve to help you research these rhetoricians (book reserve list attached).
Page Layout: The heading should be the rhetorician's name in bold and larger font with the byline reading "provided by" and your name. The entry should be single-spaced, and the formatting should have a left margin of 1 ¼" with the others being 1," choose a cleanly readable font and size. Make sure your final copy is dark and clean and printed on one side only--no staples. These entries are considered processed texts, meaning that revision and proofreading are expected. We will compile them into a collection so that everyone has them all. You need to bring a list of your choices on 30 August, and you will know your two rhetoricians on 6 September. The first entry is due and will be shared on 11 October, and the second on 15 November.
Paired Presentation: In pairs, you offer 30-45 minute presentations on contemporary rhetorics such as poststructuralist rhetorics, women's rhetorics, African-American rhetorics, Asian rhetorics, digital rhetorics, rhetorics of dissent/social change, rhetorics of critical literacy, rhetorics of ecology, etc. Both Nancy Fogarty's instruction on 23 August and I will provide you with strategies for research and introductory sources. The paired presentation requires that each of you examine 5 primary and secondary sources on your topic. That means that the annotated bibliography for the two of you will have ten entries (annotated bibliography handout to follow). As a pair you will build and extend our rhetorical knowledge and engage us in some type of interactive exchange. Besides the annotated bibliography, you may want to provide us with handouts that address such issues as key rhetoricians, key works, a timeline, quotable quotes, an overview of the rhetoricians' theories, etc. Plan for 16 copies, which include you. I will need one week's notice to arrange for any audio-visual equipment that you need.
Individual Presentation: The individual project is a conference-like paper and presentation intersecting your specialization with some aspect of rhetoric that we have dealt with across the course. Across the last two class periods, you will offer a 15-minute conference talk/paper on a specific topic you want to pursue related to the history of rhetoric. Choose some aspect of the history of rhetoric--a field, camp, trend, person, theory, concept, issue, debate, term, etc.--and examine it or relate it to the period, writers, or texts that you are interested in. In other words, the focus of this is to connect what you are learning about in the history of rhetoric to your own areas of specialization. Along with your 15-minute talk, you will need to provide me with a bibliography of at least 15 sources related to your topic, a detailed outline or 7-9 page draft of a conference paper, and a 250-word proposal for an appropriate conference, to which I will respond. You may also wish to provide the class members with a handout. On 6 September, we will look at conference proposals and the strategies of composing them, discuss conference paper criteria, and brainstorm ideas. On 4 October, you will present me with a letter or email that discusses your interests and directions of research for this conference paper. On 1 November, we will set the presentation schedules for 29 November and 6 December.
Learning Goals
Because of the assignments, discussions, and activities across the semester, you will
1) explore multiple definitions and theories of rhetorics,
2) gain an understanding of the historical chronology of these theories and rhetoricians over the last 300 years,
3) examine through reading and research intersections among theories of rhetoric and other realms of disciplinary knowledge,
4) investigate through reading and research alternative and contemporary rhetorics,
5) actively use and participate in various spoken and written forms of rhetoric,
6) apply rhetorical theories to your own specialization and/or interests, and
7) reflect on the relationship of theories to practices in various contexts such as the public, academic, and private spheres.
Evaluation: Your grade for this course is dependent on being prepared for class
1) by carefully reading, taking notes, and responding in writing to the primary and secondary texts (your weekly 400-word response to your reading),
2) by participating during each class in a thoughtful and reasonable manner (hilarity being a reasonable response), and
3) by being professional and responsible in your oral and written work (paired and individual presentations and your encyclopedia entries)
Attendance: Since your course grade is influenced by your class participation and your preparedness, regular attendance seems the most logical approach. If you cannot make a class, let me know in advance.
ENG 691: History of Rhetoric--Enlightenment through Contemporary
Weekly Schedule for Fall 2001
Note: RWT = Rhetoric of Western Thought, 7th ed.
Mapping I: Rhetoric and the Terrain
23 August Scouting the Course Terrain and Finding Our Way into Rhetoric
Introductions
Course Overview and Assignments
Library Instruction and Workshop
30 August Charting Maps of Rhetoric not Territories
Readings: RWT--xiii-xviii, 1-3, 77-80, 169-172, 339-405
On e-reserve:
Covino, William A., and David A. Jolliffe. "What Is Rhetoric?" Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1995. 3-26.
Foss, Sonja K., Karen A. Foss, and Robert Trapp. "Perspectives on the Study of Rhetoric." Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Prospect Heights: Waveland, 1991. 1-25.
Corder, Jim W. "From Rhetoric Into Other Studies." Defining the New Rhetorics. Eds. Theresa Enos and Stuart C. Brown. Newbury Park: Sage, 1993. 95-105.
Read first, then make choices about
Wish list of rhetoricians for encyclopedia due
Paired Presentations chosen and set into schedule
Reading Response #1
Mapping II: Rhetoric and Society
6 September Rhetoric and Public Discourse I
Readings: RWT--193-197
On e-reserve:
Weaver, Richard. "Language is Sermonic." Dimensions of Rhetorical Scholarship. Ed. Roger E. Nebergall. 1963. Rpt. in The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Eds. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 1351-1360. (Reprinted also in RWT)
Corbett, Edward P.J. "The Rhetoric of the Open Hand and the Rhetoric of the Closed Fist." College Composition and Communication 20.5 (1969): 288-296.
Buck, Gertrude. "The Present Status of Rhetorical Theory." Toward a Feminist Rhetoric: The Writing of Gertrude Buck. Ed. Joann Campbell. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1996. 45-51.
Handouts: Sojourner Truth's speech delivered to the Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio; Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream;" excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and another 20th century speech.
Conference Papers Discussion
Encyclopedia Entries established
Reading Response #2
13 September Rhetoric and Public Discourse II
Readings: RWT--351-367, 371-386
On e-reserve:
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Introduction: On Bearing Witness. Bearing Witness: Selections from African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century. New York: Pantheon, 1991. 3-9.
Fuller, Margaret. "The Wrongs of American Women/The Duty of American Women." The Essential Margaret Fuller. Ed. Jeffrey Steele. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1992. 393-400.
Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Eds. Joy Ritchie and Kate Ronald. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh UP, 2001. 357-365.
Bring handouts from last week.
Reading Response #3
20 September Rhetoric and Religion
Readings: RWT--209-225
On e-reserve:
Willard, Frances. Excerpted from Woman in the Pulpit. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Eds. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 1124-1135.
Burke, Kenneth. "On Words and The Word." The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. Berkeley: U of California P, 1970. 7-42.
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. Introduction: Bread Not Stone. Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation. Boston: Beacon, 1984. ix-xxv.
Reading Response #4
27 September Rhetoric and Technology
Readings: RWT--427-434
On e-reserve:
McKeon, Richard. "The Uses of Rhetoric in a Technological Age: Architectonic Productive Arts." Rhetoric: Essays in Invention and Discovery. Woodbridge: Ox Bow, 1987. 1-24.
Lanham, Richard A. "Digital Rhetoric and the Digital Arts." The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. 31-52.
Bolter, Jay David. "Hypertext and the Remediation of Print." Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. 2nd. ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001. 27-46.
Paired Presentation #1:
Reading Response #5
Mapping III: Rhetoric and Knowledge
4 October Rhetoric and Language/Discourse
Readings: RWT--289-306
On e-reserve:
Kinneavy, James E. "The Basic Aims of Discourse." College Composition and Communication 20.5 (1969): 297-304.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense." The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Eds. Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 1171-1179.
Foucault, Michel. "The Discourse on Language." The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language. Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1993. 215-237.
Derrida, Jacques. "Signature Event Context." Margins of Philosophy. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1982. 309-330.
Paired Presentation #2:
Reading Response #6
Letter to me outlining conference paper topic and research due
11 October Rhetoric and Education
Readings: RWT--97-115, 340-351
On e-reserve:
Berlin, James. "Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class." College English 50.5 (1988): 477-494.
Vico, Giambattista. Chapters 1, 2, and 3. On the Study Methods of Our Time. Trans. Elio Gianturco. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990. 3-20.
Astell, Mary. Excerpted from Reflections upon Marriage. Political Writings. Ed. Patricia Springborg. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. 60-80.
Hill, Adams Sherman. "An Answer to the Cry for More English." Good Company 4 (1879): 233-240. Rpt. in The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875-1925: A Documentary History. Ed. John C. Brereton. Pittsburgh: U of P, 1995. 45-57.
Paired Presentation #3:
Reading Response #7
Encyclopedia entry #1 due
18 October Rhetoric and Literary Theory/Aesthetics
Readings: RWT--81-93, 173-184
On e-reserve:
Blair, Hugh. "Lecture II: Taste" and "Lecture III: Criticism--Genius--Pleasures of Taste--Sublimity in Objects" from Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell, and Whately. Ed. James L. Golden and Edward P.J. Corbett. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990. 37-57.
Richards, I. A. "How to Read a Page." Professing the New Rhetorics: A Sourcebook. Eds. Theresa Enos and Stuart C. Brown. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1994. 16-37.
Winterowd, W. Ross. "Presentational Literature." The Rhetoric of the "Other" Literature. Carbondale: SIUP, 1990. 1-24.
Paired Presentation #4:
Reading Response #8
25 October Rhetoric and History
Readings:
On e-reserve:
Zarefsky, David. "Four Senses of Rhetorical History." Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1998. 19-32.
Jarratt, Susan C. "Toward a Sophistic Historiography." PRE/TEXT 8.1-2 (1987): 9-26.
Megill, Allan, and Donald N. McCloskey. "The Rhetoric of History." The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences. Eds. John S. Nelson, Megill, and McCloskey. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1987. 221-238.
Paired Presentation #5:
Reading Response #9
Mapping IV: Rhetoric and the Individual
1 November Rhetoric and the Mind
Readings: RWT--119-127, 289-292, 301-306
On e-reserve:
McKeon, Richard. "The Methods of Rhetoric and Philosophy: Invention and Judgment." Rhetoric: Essays in Invention and Discovery. Woodbridge: Ox Bow, 1987. 56-65.
Grassi, Ernesto. "Rhetoric and Philosophy." Professing the New Rhetorics: A Sourcebook. Eds. Theresa Enos and Stuart C. Brown. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1994. 90-104.
Cixous, Helene, and Catherine Clement. "A Woman Mistress." The Newly Born Woman. Trans. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1986. 136-146. Dialogue/Discussion/Debate/Dialectic: H = Helene and C = Catherine
Campbell, George. Chapters 1 and 2 from The Philosophy of Rhetoric. The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell, and Whately. Ed. James L. Golden and Edward P.J. Corbett. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990. 145-167.
Paired Presentation #6:
Reading Response #10
Conference Paper Presentation schedule set
8 November Rhetoric and the Body
Readings:
On e-reserve:
Jarratt, Susan C. "Introduction: As We Were Saying . . ." Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words. Eds. Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. New York: MLA, 1998. 1-18.
Francoz, Marion Joan. "Habit as Memory Incarnate." College English 62.1 (1999): 11-29.
Fleckenstein, Kristie S. "Writing Bodies: Somatic Mind in Composition Studies." College English 61.3 (1999): 281-306.
Paired Presentation #7:
Reading Response #11
15 November Rhetoric and Writing/Teaching
Readings: RWT--406-425
On e-reserve:
Lorde, Audre. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Eds. Joy Ritchie and Kate Ronald. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh UP, 2001. 302-305.
Welch, Kathleen E. "Technology/Writing/Identity in Composition and Rhetoric Studies: Working in the Indicative Mood." Living Rhetoric and Composition: Stories of the Discipline. Eds. Duane H. Roen, Stuart C. Brown, and Theresa Enos. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. 159-169.
Booth, Wayne C. "The Scholar in Society." The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occasions 1967-1988. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1988. 45-75.
Encyclopedia entry #2 due
Reading Response #12
22 November Thanksgiving Break
29 November Rhetoric and Your Maps
Presentations Round I
Encyclopedias Finished and Distributed
6 December Rhetoric and Your Maps
Presentations Round II
Reworking the Course Map and Course Evaluations