Course Syllabus
The Euro-American rhetorical tradition traces its beginnings to Ancient Greece and Rome where it emerged as a course of study and civic practice over 2000 years ago. Although rhetoric has mostly been formalized as a course of study following this Euro-American tradition, rhetoric has been practiced by people all over the world in culturally-grounded ways—after all, despite its dominance and perceived universality, the Euro-American rhetorical tradition is also culturally bound. While our work in this course will include becoming familiar with the major theories and theorists in this Euro-American tradition from the Renaissance through the Contemporary period, we will also spend considerable time looking at how rhetoric is understood and practiced in other cultural contexts. Throughout, a major theme with be examining how rhetoric functions within and responds to cultural boundaries, both ideological and geographic. We will also interrogate what it means to use “rhetoric” as an identifier of the discursive practices of non-Euro-American peoples, Native Americans and Hawaiians for example, and consider in what ways doing so reproduces the dominance of the Euro-American tradition and its corresponding Euro-American culture.
As we examine rhetoric in its various spatial and temporal contexts—an examination that will take us through the Renaissance and into Contemporary times, through Europe and the Americas and into the Pacific—we will work to situate the rhetorical theories and practices in social, historical, and political contexts and examine the persuasive effects of rhetoric in particular communities.
Texts:
Selections from The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present (Bizzel, Herzberg, & Reames) (available in ebook)
Other selected reading will be provided by pdf or otherwise accessible online
Learning Outcomes:
- Demonstrate an introductory knowledge of the major theorists, theories, and practices from within the Euro-American rhetorical tradition beginning with the Renaissance and through the Contemporary period.
- Demonstrate an introductory knowledge of the rhetorical theorists, theories, and practices of Indigenous peoples, specifically Hawaiian and Native American, and other groups whose rhetorical practices developed outside or alongside the Euro-American tradition.
- Develop responsible, ethically-attentive and rhetorically-informed ways of engaging in oral and written discourse.
Assignments (tentative):
- 4 scaffolded mini debate projects focused on contemporary issues
- Midterm
- Final
This class meets face-to-face weekly and fulfills the Historical Breadth: 1898-Present requirement for English majors.