English 891TT, Spring 2009

Introduction to Rhetorical Theory

University of Massachusetts Amherst

INSTRUCTOR: David Fleming

CLASS MEETINGS: Th, 4:00 - 6:30 pm, Bartlett 256

CLASS EMAIL LIST: english-891tt-1-spr09@courses.umass.edu

OFFICE: 305 Bartlett Hall

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

PHONE: 545-0610 (o)

EMAIL: dfleming@english.umass.edu

1.  DESCRIPTION.

Traditionally, the study of rhetoric is concerned with how messages are crafted to achieve desired effects in audiences, whether that study is a matter of art or interpretation.  The oldest rhetorical theories are mainly arts of public speech, but rhetoric has also been important as a school subject devoted to eloquence more generally.  Today, “rhetoric” is probably best known as a term of political abuse; but, in the academy, it survives in a variety of approaches for looking at the suasory functions of discourse.  Whether revived or moribund, capacious or narrow, rhetoric is one of the best developed and most powerful verbal disciplines available to us.

This course, a graduate-level introduction, will be divided into two parts.  In the first, we’ll look at the development of ancient rhetorical theory and pedagogy in classical Greece, especially as that development can be traced in the works of Plato, Aristotle, their forerunners, and their successors.  In the second part, we’ll test and evaluate the usefulness of ancient rhetorical theory and pedagogy in contemporary life and examine modern and postmodern developments, especially as these can help us grapple with the new conditions of our lives and new ways of thinking about language, reason, performance, character, and community.

2.  ASSIGNMENTS.

• Reading and Discussion : Expectations for reading – both close and wide – will be high.  I will provide some lecture and 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 the text to something you’ve read elsewhere or some extra-textual phenomenon it speaks to, analyzes how a particular argument is made or criticizes that argument, locates a problem of some kind in the text or asks a question about it that might be pursued later in more depth, combines two or more of these moves, or makes some other kind of intervention in the reading.  I will collect these responses at the end of class each week and read but not grade them.  Please do not write more than (about) half a page and do not treat this as a formal paper – it’s meant to prepare discussion and jump-start our engagement with the texts.
  
  
• Class within a class : Each week one of you will expand your half-page into a 20-40 minute “class” about the reading that you will lead and which you may structure any way you see fit.  You could take one of the above strategies and flesh out a more substantial “essay” concerning the reading.  You may walk us carefully through a section of the text, lead a discussion about it, raise issues with it, or have us work through some problem or do some exercise regarding it.  No secondary readings are required for this, though I’m happy to suggest an article or two that might help you (and us) approach the reading more productively.  In any case, I am available to help you plan this “class.”  It’s possible that two of you might collaborate on one of these or even do separate “classes” on the same reading on the same day, though that may take some coordination.  I’ll make a sign-up sheet available so you can begin planning your session soon.
  
  
• Semester Project : As the semester progresses, you also need to develop and pursue an individual research question on a topic related to the history of rhetoric or rhetorical theory, practice, or education.  The question should come out of our reading and discussion over the semester, but the type of question and motivation behind it are otherwise unrestricted.  The question should be rich and complex; and it should be something that you’re genuinely curious about.  The question will likely change and deepen as the semester goes on.  Limited outside reading will be useful here, but I’m more interested in your thinking than the number of secondary sources you read and cite.  Your work on this project will be circulated in three different forms at three different moments during the semester:
  

  • a tentative, in-class oral proposal for the project, of about 10 minutes, based on written notes and given sometime during weeks 9-10;
  • a still-tentative but better developed, in-class oral report, of about 20 minutes, based on written notes and given sometime during weeks 14-15; and
  • a final paper of around 12-20 pp (DS) due by 4 pm, May 21, two weeks after our last meeting.

3.  TEXTS.

Most of the readings in the course will come from the following texts, all available for loan in the Five Colleges Libraries and for purchase at Amherst Books (8 Main Street, Amherst, MA; 256-1547; www.amherstbooks.com).  They are listed here in the order in which we’ll read them.  At least one copy of each book has been placed on 3-day loan at W. E. B. Du Bois Library; note also that Jarratt’s Rereading the Sophists is available as an e-book through the Five Colleges Libraries online catalog.

• Havelock, Eric A.  Preface to Plato.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1963.
• Plato.  Gorgias.  James H. Nichols, trans.  Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.
• Plato.  Phaedrus.  R. Hackforth, trans.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1972.
• Jarratt, Susan C.  Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured.  Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1998.
• Aristotle.  On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse.  2nd ed.  George A. Kennedy, trans.  New York: Oxford UP, 2006.
• Erasmus, Desiderius.  On Copia of Words and Ideas.  Donald King and David Rix, trans.  Milwaukee: Marquette UP, 1963.
• Connors, Robert J.  Composition-Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Theory, and Pedagogy.  Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1997.
• Perelman, Chaïm, & Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca.  The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation.  John Wilkinson & Purcell Weaver, trans.  Notre Dame: Notre Dame UP, 1969.
• Butler, Judith.  Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.  New York: Routledge, 1990.
• Crosswhite, James.  The Rhetoric of Reason: Writing and the Attractions of Argument.  Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1996.
• Allen, Danielle S.  Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.

I’ll have more to say about particular editions, and alternatives to them, on the first day of the semester.  There are likely also to be occasional articles, chapters, or primary texts distributed as photocopies in class or put on reserve in Du Bois Library.

4.  CALENDAR.