COMMUNICATION 515 RHETORICAL CRITICISM Autumn 2009

Transcription

1 COMMUNICATION 515 RHETORICAL CRITICISM Autumn 2009 Instructor: Leah Ceccarelli Class Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. Class Location: Communications Bldg. Room #321 Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:20 p.m. & by appointment, Communications Bldg. Room #145 Phone: (cell) cecc@u.washington.edu Course Description: This course is designed to help you develop your ability to engage in scholarly research in the humanities. More specifically, you will be giving the resources to build an article-length rhetorical criticism paper that is good enough to be accepted for presentation at a conference and eventually achieve publication in a journal. This course is not designed to examine the history of rhetorical criticism in the discipline or to survey rhetorical methods, nor will it teach you to apply a single cookie-cutter method to an artifact. Instead, this course takes a practical and pluralistic approach to critical activity in rhetorical inquiry. You will read representative articles that discuss or apply different rhetorical concepts to the study of texts; you will cull from those articles certain productive approaches to analyzing, interpreting, and judging texts; then you will utilize those approaches in your own reading of a text. Texts are always embedded in contexts, and so you will give attention to the production influences on your text, the internal dynamics of the text itself, and the reception that text received. To build a final paper throughout the quarter, it is important that you quickly identify an artifact for rhetorical study. Typical artifacts include, but are not limited to: texts that are non-fiction (e.g., an oration, an essay, a book, a documentary, a museum exhibit), socially important (public, influential, and/or representative), bounded into a whole (i.e., you can argue the text or series of texts you have chosen has an identifiable structure), and only apparently transparent (i.e., there is something about the text that, upon close inspection, is puzzling and requires another look). This course does not have a particularly heavy reading load, but you will be doing a lot of writing. Practice makes perfect and this is a course designed to improve practice. Required Texts: James Jasinski, Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies (Sage, 2001). Although I have not assigned specific readings from this book, I expect you to consult it when searching for a rhetorical concept to introduce to the class, and throughout the quarter to learn more about the terminology you encounter in your assigned readings. The rest of the class readings are available at Final Grade Determination: Text choice and justification paper (4-5 pgs.).... 5% Four short criticism papers (2 pgs.), worth 5% each % minute presentation on concept of your choice, with handout and bibliography.. 10% Reader s report of a classmate s complete draft (2-5 pgs).. 5% Final paper (17-25 pgs.)... 60% All papers will be turned in and returned to you online at

2 If class has to be cancelled unexpectedly, we can hold class virtually through the class discussion list at: Assignments: Text choice and justification paper (4-5 pgs., due Oct. 13 at 1:30 p.m.): In this paper, you will persuade me that you have chosen a text that is an appropriate object for rhetorical criticism over the course of a 10-week quarter. In doing so, you should identify the text, provide some preliminary information about its context, and review the existent scholarly literature relevant to your project, as well as make a persuasive argument that this text deserves your close attention and will likely result in a publishable paper. If feasible, you also should provide me with a reproduction of the artifact. Short criticism papers (2 pgs. each, due Oct. 20, Oct. 27, Nov. 3 and Nov. 24 at 1:30 p.m.): You will model the criticism we read and discuss in class, drawing from the concepts discussed there as you critique your chosen text. Each short paper will report the most significant finding you discovered from applying the concept to your text. You will turn in four of these papers: one on production influences, one on metaphor, one on reception, and one on a rhetorical concept introduced in class by one of your classmates. Concept choice presentations (12-15 minute speech, with handout that includes a bibliography, due Nov. 5, 10, 17 or 19 at 1:30 p.m.): I have chosen three rhetorical concepts that we will study together in the class (performative traditions, polysemy, and metaphor). You will each choose one other rhetorical concept that we will study together, and one representative piece of published rhetorical scholarship that explores and/or applies that concept. I am happy to help you locate a suitable representative piece of published scholarship on your chosen concept; just let me know if you d like this assistance. Before class on Oct. 29, I will need to have approved both the concept and representative critical essay you have selected so that pdfs of these readings can be made available to everyone in the class. On the day your reading has been assigned to your classmates, you will present a short speech on your chosen concept as it is used in the representative essay (which the entire class will have read by that day) and in other essays that you ve found in your research on that concept. In this speech, you will also illustrate the concept by applying it to the rhetorical criticism of your text. You will provide a handout that includes a definition of the concept, a summary of what you ve discovered about the concept in your research on its use in rhetorical criticism, and a summary of what you discovered from applying the concept to your text. This handout should include a bibliography that lists all useful materials you have read about the concept. Some prospective concepts include (but are not limited to): genre, ethos, irony, iconicity, pentadic ratios, dissociation, imitation, kairos, myth, narrative, ideographs, close reading, argument schemes, topoi, intertextuality, presence, condensation symbols, and stases. Draft of Final Paper (17-25 pgs., due Dec. 8 at 1:30 p.m.) and Reader s report (2-5 pgs., due Dec. 10 at 1:30 p.m.): You are expected to turn in a draft of your final paper by Dec. 8, and act as a reviewer for the draft turned in by one of your classmates, filling out the standard reader s report section titled comments to author and returning a copy of that reader s report to me and to your classmate by Dec. 10. Final paper (17-25 pgs., due Dec. 16 by 10:30 a.m.): Your final paper will utilize one or more of the concepts studied in class in the criticism of your chosen text. It will be evaluated as a paper submitted for conference presentation and/or publication, thus it should conform to the publication standards of the field, making an argument that contributes something significant to the scholarly literature.

3 COMMUNICATION 515: RHETORICAL CRITICISM AUTUMN 2009 SCHEDULE Thurs. Oct. 1 Tues. Oct. 6 Orientation to the class On the Relationship between Method and Theory in Humanistic Research David Zarefsky, Reflections on Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetoric Review, 25.4 (2006): James Jasinski, The Status of Theory and Method in Rhetorical Criticism, Western Journal of Communication 65.3 (2001): Barry Brummett, Rhetorical Theory as Heuristic and Moral: A Pedagogical Justification, Communication Education 33.2 (1984): Thurs. Oct. 8 Publication-Worthy Research in Rhetorical Criticism Sandra J. Berkowitz, Originality, Conversation and Reviewing Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Studies 54.3 (2003): Barry Brummett, Double Binds in Publishing Rhetorical Studies, Communication Studies 54.3 (2003): Catherine Helen Palczewski, What Is Good Criticism? A Conversation in Progress, Communication Studies 54.3 (2003): Reading Text in Context Michael Leff, Lincoln at Cooper Union: Neo-Classical Criticism Revisited, Western Journal of Communication, 65.3 (2001): Tues. Oct. 13 Thurs. Oct. 15 TEXT CHOICE AND JUSTIFICATION PAPER DUE Production Influence: Performative Traditions James Jasinski, Instrumentalism, Contextualism, and Interpretation in Rhetorical Criticism, in Rhetorical Hermeneutics: Invention and Interpretation in the Age of Science, eds. William Keith and Alan G. Gross (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), James Jasinski, Rearticulating History through Epideictic Discourse: Frederick Douglass s the Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro, in Rhetoric and Political Culture in Nineteenth Century America, ed. T. W. Benson (East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1997), Tues. Oct. 20

4 Thurs. Oct. 22 Metaphor Edwin Black, The Second Persona, Quarterly Journal of Speech 56.2 (1970): Robert L. Ivie, Metaphor and the Rhetorical Invention of Cold War Idealists, Communication Monographs, 54.2 (1987): Celeste M. Condit et al., Recipes or Blueprints for Our Genes? How Contexts Selectively Activate the Multiple Meanings of Metaphors, Quarterly Journal of Speech 88.3 (2002): Tues. Oct. 27 Thurs. Oct. 29 Reception: Polysemy Leah Ceccarelli, Polysemy: Multiple Meanings in Rhetorical Criticism, Quarterly Journal of Speech 84 (November 1998): Leah Ceccarelli, Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), Tues. Nov. 3 Thurs. Nov. 5 Your Choice of Rhetorical Concept; HANDOUTS DUE FROM PRESENTERS Presence [Liz Hunter presenting] Thomas F. Mader, "On Presence in Rhetoric" College Composition and Communication, 24 (1973): Bureaucratization [Anjali Vats presenting] Edward Schiappa, The Rhetoric of Nukespeak, Communication Monographs 56 (1989): Tues. Nov. 10 Your Choice of Rhetorical Concept; HANDOUTS DUE FROM PRESENTERS Ideograph [Nate Johnson presenting] Michael Calvin McGee, The 'Ideograph': A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology," Quarterly Journal of Speech 66.1 (1980): Identification [Alison Rank presenting] Mary E. Stuckey and Frederick J. Antczak, "The Battle of Issues and Images: Establishing Interpretive Dominance," Communication Quarterly 42.2 (Spring 1994): Thurs. Nov. 12 NO CLASS NCA CONVENTION

5 Tues. Nov. 17 Your Choice of Rhetorical Concept HANDOUTS DUE FROM PRESENTERS Epideictic [Pamela Pietrucci presenting] Celeste Condit, The Functions of Epideictic: The Boston Massacre Orations as Exemplar, Communication Quarterly, 33.4 (1985): Heteroglossia [Jennifer LeMesurier presenting] Mary Frances HopKins, "The Rhetoric of Heteroglossia in Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood'," Quarterly Journal of Speech 75.2 (May 1989): Genre [Heather Hill presenting] Carolyn R. Miller, Genre as Social Action Quarterly Journal of Speech 70 (May 1984): Thurs. Nov. 19 Your Choice of Rhetorical Concept HANDOUTS DUE FROM PRESENTERS Ego-function [Kai Kohlsdorf presenting] Charles Stewart, The ego function of protest songs: An application of Gregg's theory of protest rhetoric," Communication Studies 42.3 (Autumn 1991): Interpellation [Katie Knobloch presenting] Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Quebecois," Quarterly Journal of Speech 73.2 (May 1987): Tues. Nov. 24 Thurs. Nov. 26 Tues. Dec. 1 NO CLASS THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY Publication-Worthy Research in Rhetorical Criticism Revisited Re-examine all the readings in class to this point to determine what constitutes publishable scholarship in the area of rhetorical criticism. Thurs. Dec. 3 Tues. Dec. 8 Thurs. Dec. 10 Wed. Dec. 16 Paper Presentations Paper Presentations; DRAFTS OF FINAL PAPER DUE READER S REPORT DUE FINAL PAPERS DUE BY 10:30 A.M.