This course is a survey of the history of rhetoric. You will be introduced to that history as we trace a few of the key developments in the field from 500BC to the seventeenth century.
Rhetoric is as much about understanding, navigating, and negotiating belief systems as it is about “the arts of persuasion” (the latter is only possible via the former). As such, rhetoricians have worried a great deal over the last 2500+ years about what constitutes a “good [person] speaking well” (Quintilian) — a question that persists today. By tracing a history of rhetoric, we’ll not only have the chance to explore the traditions, disruptions, values, and questions that have driven the field (and continue to drive it), but we’ll also explore the intersections of truth and morality across that history and think about how they continue to inform our contemporary notions of both. In the final weeks of the semester, you will prepare a “thought experiment” with a few of your peers in which you, together, present part of a text (e.g., scenes from a TV show or excerpts from a novel) and use that text as a springboard for a discussion (which you will lead together) that complicates the notions of morality and truth that we have been presented with in our course readings.
Please note that this course satisfies the “PRE-1700” historical breadth requirement for the English major.
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the history of rhetoric from the Classical to the Renaissance Eras
- Engage critically and creatively with your own and with others’ ideas and beliefs
- Study and implement strategies for persuasive oral and written debate
- Develop socially responsible, ethical ways of engaging in oral and written discourse