English 891BC, Spring 2008

Rhetorics of the Public Sphere

University of Massachusetts Amherst

INSTRUCTOR: David Fleming

CLASS MEETINGS: W 6:00 - 8:30 p.m., 256 Bartlett Hall

CLASS EMAIL LIST: english-891bc-01-spr08@courses.umass.edu

OFFICE: 305 Bartlett Hall

OFFICE HOURS: W 1:00 - 3:00 & gladly by appt.

PHONE: 545-0610 (o)

EMAIL: dfleming@english.umass.edu

Description | Assignments | Texts | Calendar | Comp-Rhet Resources on the WWW

1. DESCRIPTION.

Since the late 19th Century, the discipline of composition-rhetoric has tended to focus its energies on the discourses of the academy – through both its flagship educational project, freshman composition, and its putative mission, to prepare students for the demands of school writing in all its forms. But over the last few decades, teachers and scholars in the field have begun to make a “public turn,” thinking more carefully and imaginatively about their students’ lives as language users outside of the classroom. This turn has manifest itself in, among other things, increased interest in public writing and political discourse, the “rhetorics” of everyday life, connections between composition and service learning, and the diverse “extracurricular” communities that shape our students and to which they will graduate. Rhetorics of the Public Sphere is a graduate seminar broadly focused on the political ecologies in and out of the writing classroom and how teacher-scholars might best respond to them.

Readings will be especially attentive to three possible paths for the field’s “public turn”: 1) teaching writing with an eye on the political and civic implications of literacy instruction; 2) partnering with individuals, organizations, and communities outside of the academy in order to pursue projects beneficial to all; and 3) researching and intervening in political and social life for the purposes of understanding and change.
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2. ASSIGNMENTS.

Work in the course will include the following components:

Reading and Discussion : Expectations for reading – both close and wide – will be high. I will provide guidance for discussion, but most of the responsibility here will be yours. To prepare and enrich our discussions, I ask that you come to every class meeting with a half-page (single-spaced) reaction to the reading for that week, a response to the text (or part thereof) that engages it in some way: summarizes a key point, connects it to something you’ve read or experienced elsewhere, analyzes how a particular argument is made, criticizes that argument, locates a problem of some kind in the text, asks a question about it that might be pursued later in more depth, or makes some other kind of intervention not listed here. I will collect these responses at the end of class each week and read but not grade them. Please do not write more than half a page and do not treat this as a formal paper – it’s meant to prepare discussion and jump-start our collective engagement with the texts.
Class within a class : Each week for about the first half of the semester, two of you will expand your half-pages about the reading into presentations of about 20 minutes each which you may structure any way you see fit. Each of you will do this once during the semester. A good place to begin is to take one chapter or essay from the week’s reading and prepare a fairly detailed summary-response for us. But there are other options: you could flesh out a more substantial “essay” concerning the reading, lead a class discussion about it, raise issues with it, or have us work through some problems regarding it. No secondary readings are required for this assignment, though I’m happy to suggest an article or two that might help. In any case, I’m available for assistance as you plan this presentation. You are welcome to collaborate on the presentation though you are not required to do so (if you do, the presentation should obviously be longer). Even if you don’t collaborate, you might want to touch base with the other person presenting that day to make sure there’s not too much overlap. I’ll pass around a sign-up sheet so you can begin planning these classes soon.
Semester Project : As the semester progresses, you also need to develop and pursue an individual research project relevant to this course. The project should come out of our reading and discussion, but the type of project and motivation behind it are otherwise unrestricted. The topic should be rich and complex; and it should be something that you’re genuinely curious and excited about. The project can be curricular, empirical, ethnographic, critical, or bibliographic; it can be a case study or a proposal for a longer project; it can be a resource of some kind; or it can be a conventional seminar paper. There will be opportunities to try out ideas and formulate plans for this assignment as the semester proceeds; and I’m always happy to meet individually with you about it. Your work on this project will be “published” in 3 different forms:
1. in-class oral proposal for the project, of about 10 mins., based on written notes, and given sometime during weeks 10-12;
2. in-class oral progress report, of about 20 mins., based on written notes, and given sometime during weeks 13-15; and
3. final paper of around 15-20 pp (DS) due by 4 pm, May 21, two weeks after our last meeting.

3. TEXTS.

Readings in the course will come from the following texts, all available for loan from Five Colleges Libraries and for purchase from Amherst Books (8 Main Street, Amherst, MA; 256-1547). At least one copy of each book has also been placed on 3-day reserve at W. E. B. Du Bois Library.

• ADLER-KASSNER, Linda, Robert CROOKS, and Ann WATTERS, eds. Writing the Community: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Composition. Stylus Publishing, 1997. 1563770067.
• ARENDT, Hannah. The Human Condition. 2nd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998. 0-226-02598-5. (1st ed. from 1958 is fine.)
• BRODKEY, Linda. Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. 0-8166-2807-6.
• BRYAN, Frank M. Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004. 0-226-07797-7.
• CINTRON, Ralph. Angels’ Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday. Boston: Beacon P, 1997. 0-8070-4637-X.
• HABERMAS, Jürgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1991. 0-262-58108-6.
• MATHIEU, Paula. Tactics of Hope: The Public Turn in English Composition. Portsmouth, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 2005. 0-86709-578-4.
• ROBERTS-MILLER, Patricia. Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 2004. 0-8093-2766-X.

The following articles and chapters will supplement these books; they will be available either online through UMass Libraries or as PDF documents emailed to you.

• Cushman, Ellen. “The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, and Activist Research.” College English 61.3 (1999): 328-336. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• DeLuca, Kevin Micahael & Jennifer Peeples. “From Public Sphere to Public Screen: Democracy, Activism, and the Violence of Seattle.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 19.2 (2002): 125-151. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• Demosthenes. “First Philippic.” Greek Orations, 4th Century, B.C. Ed. W. Robert Connor. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland P, 1987. 40-55. [Available as PDF attachment from instructor.]
• Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Habermas and the Public Sphere. Ed. Calhoun, Craig. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1992. 109-142. [Available as PDF attachment from instructor.]
• Haefner, Joel. “Democracy, Pedagogy, and the Personal Essay.” College English 54.2 (1992): 127-137. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• Hairston, Maxine. “Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing.” College Composition and Communication 43.2 (1992): 179-193. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• Hesford, Wendy. “Global/Local Labor Politics and the Promise of Service Learning.” Radical Relevance: Essays Towards a Scholarship of the “Whole Left.” Eds. Steven Rosendale and Laura Gray-Rosendale. Albany: State U of New York P, 2005. 183-202. [Available as PDF attachment from instructor.]
• Paine, Charles. “The Composition Course and Public Discourse: The Case of Adam Sherman Hill, Popular Culture, and Cultural Inoculation.” Rhetoric Review 15.2 (1997): 282-299. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• Rodriguez, Richard. “The North American.” Public Discourse in America: Conversation and Community in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Judith Rodin & Stephen P. Steinberg. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. 60-70. [Available as PDF attachment from instructor.]
• Ryfe, David M. “The Principles of Public Discourse: What Is Good Public Discourse?” Public Discourse in America: Conversation and Community in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Judith Rodin & Stephen P. Steinberg. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. 163-177. [Available as PDF attachment from instructor.]
• Warner, Michael. “Publics and Counterpublics.” Public Culture 14.1 (2002): 49-90. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]
• Wells, Susan. “Rogue Cops and Health Care: What Do We Want from Public Writing?” College Composition and Communication 47.3 (1996): 325-341. [Available online through UMass Libraries.]

4. CALENDAR.

wk		day	topics and assignments
1	W	Jan 30	Introduction to course and each other; a classical conception of politics, part I: Demosthenes
2	W	Feb 06	A classical conception of politics, part II: ARENDT
3	W	Feb 13	The modern public sphere, part I: HABERMAS
4	W	Feb 20	The modern public sphere, part II: Responses to HABERMAS from Fraser, Warner, DeLuca & Peeples, Ryfe
5	W	Feb 27	The politics of comp-rhet, part I: ROBERTS-MILLER
6	W	Mar 05	The politics of comp-rhet, part II: BRODKEY, Hairston
7	W	Mar 12	The politics of comp-rhet, part III: Haefner, Paine, Wells
8	W	Mar 10	Spring Recess
9	W	Mar 26	Comp's "extracurriculum," part I: MATHEIU, Cushman, Hesford
10	W	Apr 02	Comp's "extracurriculum," part II: ADLER-KASSNER et al. (5 proposals @ 10 mins. ea.)
11	W	Apr 09	Rhetorics of the everyday: CINTRON, Rodriguez (5 proposals @ 10 mins. ea.)
12	W	Apr 16	A local option for political revitalization: BRYAN (5 proposals @ 10 mins. ea.)
13	W	Apr 23	Symposium (5 reports @ 25 mins. ea.)
14	W	Apr 30	Symposium (5 reports @ 25 mins. ea.)
15	W	May 07	Symposium (5 reports @ 25 mins. ea.)
	W	May 21	Semester projects due