In this course, we consider “rhetoric” as a way of making knowledge in the world. In fact, the way in which we interpret, respond to, or perceive ourselves to be involved in things like ecology, digital revolutions, globalism, feminism, ethnic profiling, and even war is inherently rhetorical because it requires our understanding of how symbols act on us and on others—what Kenneth Burke has famously called “equipments for living.” Thus, this course will involve you in the study and practice of rhetorical criticism by introducing you to some theoretical landmarks that make it a living practice for the 21st century.
In a single course, we cannot cover all schools of thought that have historically contributed to rhetorical theory as we know it (e.g., neo-classicism, linguistic post-structuralism, Marxism, Dramatism, postmodern feminism, etc.) but we can engage with a set of critical problems or dilemmas that have shaped contemporary understandings of rhetoric, writing, culture, and text. In fact, much of what challenges us as writers, readers, students, workers, and citizens often boils down to four dilemmas of agency, signification, textuality, and representation. Whether or not you consider yourself a rhetorical theorist, much critical work is often done to meet real demands in real contexts. So, we will use films, graphic novels, and assorted web, print, and video texts as “cases” or situations for understanding the nature of these dilemmas.
With consistent effort and engagement, by the end of the semester, you will have achieved the following:
- gained a solid overview of some important landmarks in the development of contemporary rhetorical theory;
- gained a clearer sense of how critical terms can be applied to mundane situations in order to raise original questions;
- gained a clearer understanding of how complex thoughts can be communicated across a variety of media;
- learned different approaches to reading texts, some of them multimodal;
- honed your critical writing skills in both essay and blog formats;
- explored the productive possibilities of rhetorical theory through the creation of a final project.
