Reading Rhetorical Theory: How to Understand and Apply Rhetoric in Various Contexts (download.zip)

This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?

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Rhetoric majors are trained in the history of rhetorical theory and practice, grounded in argumentation and in the analysis of the symbolic and institutional dimensions of discourse. The department offers both a pragmatic understanding of the elements of rhetorical analysis, with special attention to logic, style, tropes, figures, and images, and a thorough grounding in the historical development of these elements in rhetorical theory. The combination allows students to make a disciplined grasp of the contemporary character of rhetoric and language. Through its emphasis on the history and theory of rhetoric, the department provides an understanding of the format of contemporary theories of interpretation as well as an opportunity, within this framework, to explore the role of persuasion in pragmatic and aesthetic contexts.

This area of concentration focuses on understanding the development of rhetorical theory and practice from its genesis in the classical period to its situation in the present. Students will consider how the discipline of rhetoric has both shaped and itself been shaped by social, political, technological, and intellectual developments over the course of two millennia. Individual courses will enable close study of the process of rhetoric's influence and adaptation, both in theory and in practice, in specific contexts throughout its history.

This area of concentration focuses on understanding rhetoric in its symbolic and institutional dimensions, with special emphasis on legal and political forums. Students consider the discourse of law, politics, and society both in theory and in practice, in an attempt to understand the rhetorical nature of political judgment, action, justice, and legitimacy. Individual courses will enable close study of specific problems, concerns, vocabularies, modes of interpretation, and strategies of argumentation arising in public forums of the past and present.

Students learn about different kinds of representation (and critiques thereof), how different genres shape and offer material for interpretation, and how different media forms produce a sense of reality. They learn to reflect on how various modes of presentation work (film, literary and philosophical texts, legal cases, political tracts, performances, archival materials), what kinds of meanings they have, and what kinds of effects they produce. They consider works of both high and low culture and bring various kinds of approaches to both. As they advance, students compare and bring genres together for analysis, working for instance with legal trials in film, philosophical uses of literary works, oral interpretation of texts, the textual and archival basis for the transition from orality to literacy, the political presuppositions of law, the aesthetic dimensions of political theory, and the influence of law on non-legal rhetorical practice.

TWRT 320 Rhetoric, Public Life, and Civic Engagement (5)Introduces rhetorical criticism by examining how particular rhetorical theories and traditions have been applied to specific social issues. Explores the development of rhetoric, as both a theory and a practice, and how those at the margins of the Western rhetorical tradition have worked to expand its purview.View course details in MyPlan: TWRT 320

TWRT 420 Rhetoric and the City: Composing Urban Landscapes (5) SScExamines cites through an interdisciplinary lens, as texts that can be read, revised, and re-written as/through symbolic action. After reading and discussing critical theory about space and place, students conduct place-based research in preparation to compose critical essays, narratives, and visuals depicting specific experiences related to the city. Prerequisite: either T CORE 101, TWRT 112, TWRT 121, TWRT 211, ENGL 131, or ENGL 141; recommended: TWRT 320, TWRT 330, TWRT 340, or TWRT 388. Offered: Sp.View course details in MyPlan: TWRT 420

Using print and digital technologies to create, design, and produce texts now requires new ways of thinking about writing as a concept and practice. As an interdisciplinary examination and application of rhetoric and writing technologies, the Minor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies prepares students to read, analyze, and compose. These skills serve across academic, workplace, and public spheres. The interactive courses are designed to improve reading, critical thinking, argumentation, narrative, and problem-solving abilities. Students learn to evaluate the implications of print, digital, and social media compositions in both local and global contexts. As a result, students are able to navigate known, new, and emerging writing situations and media. Students learn how to be flexible composers who can apply rhetorical strategies and digital skills to their current environments, as well as adapt emerging technologies to new contexts.

Critical reading and analysis conducted through literary, academic, journalistic, and fictional genres with additional instruction in paragraph development and sentence-level mechanics. Students analyze and apply rhetorical principles in a range of writing assignments. Letter Grade with P/NP Option.

Critical reading and analysis conducted through literary, academic, journalistic, and fictional genres. Students analyze and apply rhetorical principles in a range of writing assignments. Letter Grade with P/NP Option.

We have shown that personal pronouns can indeed be a crucial factor in how readers experience fiction. However, personal pronouns are only one possible facet of narrative viewpoint and narrative perspective. Whether the effects we observed can be generalized across several features of narrative style remains an open question (see [33], chapter 7 for discussion). Our results show that readers are more easily immersed when reading 1st person stories, as proposed by narrative theory, e.g. [18]. We add to this assumption not only by providing experimental evidence, but also, we could show that the difference in processing 1st or 3rd person viewpoints in story engagement mainly relates to arousal and immersion, particularly transportation and experiencing mental imagery during reading. Further, our study adds to the field of discourse comprehension by showing that 3rd person pronouns as discourse anchors seem to induce increased processing demands as compared to 1st person pronouns, which in turn could account for lower immersion. This finding can be interpreted as evidence in support of embodied models of language processing. In addition, this study confirms the link between immersion and appreciation of the story and reveals evidence that appreciation of stories is positively linked to prior reading experience as measured by the ART. Moreover, our study confirms previous findings that individual differences in empathy skills (as measured by the EQ) are related to subjective experience during reading [46,47,49,50]. A remaining issue is whether pronouns are a major force in driving narrative perspective. It could be that people tend to identify with the character from whose viewpoint the story is told (see [25], which is independent of pronoun choice. As all stories we selected were internally focalized, the main character always told the story from his or her perspective. Another very plausible reason is variability between individuals. It has been shown that subjects differ substantially in perspective taking preferences [59]. Textual features such as personal pronouns are not always sufficient to overcome personal preferences [59]. Future research is needed to confirm our findings on other levels of discourse.

In this essay, classical rhetorical theory is applied to show that Machiavelli's Prince was not intended as advice for a prince, nor as "political science," but rather as a very subtle, but nevertheless powerful, critique of the Italian princes of his day, the Medici included. While not a new reading of the text (the notion of the Prince as a crypto-republican work goes back even before the Enlightenment to the very first years of its appearance), this article places such an interpretation on the firm base of rhetorical theory together with a close reading of the text. Classical rhetorical theory will thus be seen to be a powerful tool in the proper understanding of the text, a line of approach continuing the already important work of the past twenty years, which seeks to restore an appreciation of the fundamentally rhetorical nature of Machiavelli's literary technique and political thought. From this examination of the text against the background of rhetorical theory, one of the perennially vexing questions in the interpretation of Machiavelli's political thought--how to reconcile the apparently "princely" counsels of the Prince with the republican sentiments expressed in Machiavelli's other writings--can finally be resolved.

Intensive reading, writing, and discussion in writing center theory and philosophy, tutoring methods, and writing pedagogy, as well as a review of standard American English usage and mechanics; followed by a supervised apprenticeship as a peer consultant in the University Writing Center. Two lecture hours and two apprenticeship hours a week for one semester. Prerequisite: Upper-division standing; one of the following: English 303C, Rhetoric and Writing 306, 306Q, or Tutorial Course 303C; and approval of written application by instructor. 2ff7e9595c