Communication 332

Rhetoric and Communication

Sept 9 Introduction to Course

Readings:
Plato, Gorgias.
Borchers, T., Defining Rhetoric and Rhetorical Theory and Rhetoric as Persuasion.

Sept. 16 Selected Issues in Classical Rhetoric: A Terribly Short Overview
Plato's Divided Line of Knowledge

Readings:
Poulakos, J. et. al, Rhetoric and Law.
Cutbirth, Craig, Classical (Western) Rhetorical Theory.
Borchers, T., Style, Delivery, and Rhetorical Theory.

Sept. 23 Moral Thinking: Persuasion as Ethical Practise

Readings:
Peters, John Durham, Dialogue and Dissemination.
Borchers, T., Rhetoric, Science and Argumentation.

Sept 30 Modernist Views: Freud, Burke and Richards

Readings:
Lakoff, Robin, Language: The Power We Love to Hate.
Borchers, T., Rhetoric and Meaning.

Oct. 7 Contemporary Research in Rhetoric/Persuasion

Readings:
Fish, S., Rhetoric.
Hartnett, Stephen, and Stengrim, L., "The Whole Operation of Deception": Reconstructing President Bush's Rhetoric of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies , Vol. 4, No. 2, 2004, pp. 152 - 197. [This is a lengthy article. Please do your best in getting through as much of it as you can for this week.]

Oct. 14 Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion

Readings:
David Goodwin, Toward a Grammar and Rhetoric of Visual Opposition, Rhetoric Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 92 - 111.
Messaris, P., Introduction to Visual Persuasion.
Borchers, T., Dramatism.

Oct. 21 Mid-Term Exam

Oct. 28 The Business of Influence/The Influence of Business

Readings:
Rhoads, K. et. al., The Business of Influence.
Borchers, T., Critical Approaches to Rhetoric.

Nov. 4 Hegemony and Rhetorical Analysis

Readings:
Macdonald, M., Discourse and Ideology.
Rimke, H. M., Governing Citizens Trhough Self-Help Literature, Cultural Studies, Vol. 14 (1), 2000, pp. 61 - 78.
Ives, R. L., Democratic Dissent and the Trick of Rhetorical Critique, Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2005, pp. 276 - 293.
Borchers, T., Gendered Rhetorical Theory.

Nov. 11: Thanksgiving Day Holiday

Nov. 18 Self-Promotion in Promotional Culture

Readings:
Moynihan, R. et. al., Prologue: Selling Sickness, and Selling to Everyone: High Cholesterol.
Mathieu, P., Economic Citizenship and the Rhetoric of Gourmet Coffee, Rhetoric Review, Vol. 18 (19), 1999, pp. 112 - 127.
Jordan, J., The Rhetorical Limits of the "Plastic Body," Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 90, No. 3, August 2004, pp. 327 - 358.
Borchers, T., Non-Western Rhetorical Theories.

Nov.25 Rhetoric and the Spectacle

Readings:
Kellner, D., Media Culture and the Triumph of the Spectacle.
Bytwerk, R., The Argument for Genocide in Nazi Propaganda, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 91, No. 1, February 2005, pp. 37 - 62.
Borchers, T., Postmodern Approaches to Rhetoric.

Dec. 2 The Rhetoric of Forgivess

Readings:
Derrida, J. On Forgiveness.
Kimball, Robert. A Plea for Pity. Philosophy and Rhetoric, vol. 37, No. 4, 2004, pp. 301 - 316.
Jankelevitch, V. Should We Pardon Them? Critical Inquiry, vol. 22, No.3 , 1996, pp. 552 - 572.