COM 325 CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF RHETORIC

FALL 2000

Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast Office hours: TH 9-10:50; MWF 1-1:50

303 Smucker Hall, Riley Court e-mail: mastg@bluffton.edu

Phone: x3208 home page: http://www.bluffton.edu/~mastg/

Course Description. This course explores theories of rhetoric and methods of rhetorical criticism that have been shaped by the modern and postmodern context. Theories and methods examined in the course include neo-aristotelianism, dramatism, postmodernism, cultural studies and deconstruction. Throughout the course, particular attention is given to the relationship between discourse and social transformation.

Course Objectives: The course provides students with paradigms and vocabularies for describing, explaining, and shaping the social arena of discourse and persuasion. Students will develop an understanding of modern and postmodern rhetorical theories, with particular attention to critical frameworks built within the speech communication discipline in North America. At the same time, students will come to greater awareness of the increasing prominence of the analysis of language found in other disciplines such as literary theory, philosophy, and cultural studies. Students should recognize the explanatory value of contemporary rhetorical theories for communicative and performative events in which they participate either as rhetors or as audience members. Perhaps most importantly, students should come to see the realm of rhetoric as a context subject to their own interventions as critics, leaders, communication professionals, and disciples.

Requirements and Evaluation. Students are expected to attend each class having read the assigned text and prepared to engage in a vigorous discussion about the assumptions, commitments, and claims advanced in the assigned text. Students should bring to each class a written list of the major claims advanced by the author of the assigned text, as well as some questions for discussion. Each student will complete a major research essay that either describes and analyzes the intellectual career of a major rhetorical theorist or applies contemporary rhetorical theory to the critical analysis of a specific communication event (i.e. speech, performance, narrative, exhibition, etc.). This research will be presented to the class in the form of a 25 minute presentation at the conclusion of the semester. In addition to the research essay students will complete two essay examinations (midterm and final). The final grade will be distributed as follows:

Midterm examination	20
Final examination	25
Research essay	30
Research presentation	15
Class participation	10

Attendance Policy. Students are expected to attend each class period.  Unexcused absences will be reflected in the student’s participation grade. Additionally, students are responsible for any material missed during an excused or unexcused absence.  Excused absences are absences that have been acknowledged as legitimate by the instructor. These will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Academic Honesty. In accordance with Bluffton College's Honor system, the exams will not be monitored and students will be asked to affirm that "I am unaware of any aid having been given or received" on each examination.  Additionally, students are expected to do original work for the assignments and to cite all material that is borrowed from other sources.  Acknowledged violations of the Honor System either during examinations or through plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the test or assignment and will be reported to the Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs. In extreme instances of academic dishonesty the student may receive a failing grade for the class. Contested cases will be reported to the Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs and resolved through the campus judicial system.

Books and Materials

Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

Judith Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge, 1997.

John Louis Lucaites, Celeste Michelle Condit, and Sally Caudill, editors, Contemporary

Rhetorical Theory: A Reader. New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.

Additional essays as provided by the instructor or made available on the class home page.

Class Assignment Schedule

Date	Reading Assignment	Classroom Activity
	Modern Theories of Rhetoric
Mon., Aug. 28	Syllabus	Introduce course and review syllabus
Wed., Aug. 30	Locke, from “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	Discuss Enlightenment view of rhetoric
Fri., Sept. 1	Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense”	Discuss modern hermeneutic of suspicion
Mon., Sept. 4	Lucaites and Condit, “Introduction” (CRT, 1-18)	Review history of speech communication discipline in U.S.
Wed., Sept. 6	Burke, Part I, The Rhetoric of Motives (3-46)	Discuss the turn to “identification” in rhetoric
Fri., Sept. 8	Burke, Part II, The Rhetoric of Motives (49-180)	Discuss Burke’s history of rhetoric
Mon., Sept 11	Burke, Part III, The Rhetoric of Motives (183-333)	Discuss hierarchy, sacrifice, and perfection, in Burke’s thought
Wed., Sept. 13	Brummett, “Burke’s Representative Anecdote as a Method in Media Criticism” (CRT, 479-493)	Discuss appropriation of Burke to rhetorical scholarship
Fri., Sept. 15	Wichelns, “The Literary Criticism of Oratory”	Discuss neo-aristotelian rhetorical theory
Mon., Sept. 18	Farrell, “Practicing the Arts of Rhetoric” (CRT 79-100)	Continue discussion of neo-aristotlelianism
Wed., Sept. 20	Scott, “On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic” (CRT 131-139)	Discuss rhetorical epistemology
Fri., Sept. 22	Cherwitz and Hikins, “Rhetorical Perspectivism” (CRT 176-193)	Discuss rhetorical perspectivism
Mon., Sept. 25	Black, “The Second Persona” (CRT 331-340)	Discuss rhetoric and implied audience
Wed., Sept. 27	McGee, “In Search of ‘the People’: A Rhetorical Alternative”	Discuss the emergence of a “people” in rhetoric
Fri., Sept. 29	Simons, “Requirements, Problems, and Strategies: A Theory of Persuasion for Social Movements” (CRT 385-396)	Discuss social movement theory in the rhetorical tradition
Mon., Oct. 2	Campbell, “The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation: An Oxymoron” (CRT 397-410)	Discuss theory of women’s movement rhetoric
Wed., Oct. 4	Gronbeck, “The Functions of Presidential Campaigning” (CRT 411-424)	Discuss theory of rhetorical campaigns
Fri., Oct. 6	Bitzer, “The Rhetorical Situation”	Discuss situational approach to rhetoric
	Postmodern Theories of Rhetoric
Mon., Oct. 9	Biesecker, “Rethinking the Rhetorical Situation from within the Thematic of Différance” (CRT 232-246)	Discuss postmodern turn in rhetorical theory
Wed., Oct. 11	Derrida, “Signature, Event, Context “	Discuss Derridian deconstruction
Fri., Oct. 13	Derrida, “Signature, Event, Context”	Discuss Derridian deconstruction
Mon., Oct. 16	Fall Break	No class
Wed., Oct. 18	Prepare for midterm examination	Midterm examination
Fri., Oct. 20	McGee, “Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture” (CRT 65-78)	Discuss rhetoric and cultural change
Mon., Oct. 23	McKerrow, “Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis” (CRT 441-463)	Discuss rhetoric and cultural analysis
Wed., Oct. 25	Rushing and Frentz, “Integrating Ideology and Archetype in Rhetorical Criticism” (CRT 512-533)	Discuss ideology and rhetoric
Fri., Oct. 27	Aune, “Cultures of Discourse: Marxism and Rhetorical Theory” (CRT 539-551)	Discuss Marxism and rhetoric
Mon., Oct. 30	Goodnight, “The Personal, Technical, and Public Spheres of Argument” (CRT 251-264)	Discuss rhetoric and the public sphere
Wed., Nov. 1	Butler, “On Linguistic Vulnerability,” Excitable Speech, 1-41.	Discuss the subject in language
Fri., Nov. 3	Butler, “Burning Acts, Injurious Speech” Excitable Speech, 43-69.	Discuss hate speech
Mon., Nov. 6	Butler, “Sovereign Performatives” Excitable Speech, 72-102.
Wed., Nov. 8	Butler, “Contagious Word” Excitable Speech, 103-126.
Fri., Nov. 10	Butler, “Implicit Censorship and Discursive Agency,” Excitable Speech, 127-163.