CMS390P Foundations of Rhetorical Theory Syllabus [Graduate]

This course surveys the foundations and historical evolution of major concepts, issues, theorists, and approaches to the study of rhetoric from Plato to recent contemporary theorists.

The key question in rhetorical analysis concerns the relationships that the speakers (or writers of texts) construct between themselves and the audience with their texts. Who is the speaker in the text? Who does the text address? How does the "matter itself", the topic of the text, function as part of the addressing? How does the text carry the opportunities for social relationships, links and distinctions, harmony and discord? Ultimately, we are dealing with the political aspects of a text: how does it invite you to act?

2018

Rhetoric is the faculty of discovering, in a given instance, the available means of persuasion."-Aristotle "Rhetoric is language at play-language plus. It is what persuades and cajoles, inspires and bamboozles, thrills and misdirects. It causes criminals to be convicted, and then frees those criminals on appeal. It causes governments to rise and fall, best men to be ever after shunned by their friends' brides, and perfectly sensible adults to march with steady purpose toward machine guns…It is made of ringing truths and vital declarations. It is a way in which our shared assumptions and understandings are applied to new situations, and the language of history is channeled, revitalized, and given fresh power in each successive age."-Sam Leith Course Description: "It's just rhetoric."

by appointment Class Time: TTh 12:30-2pm Unique: 07155 Classroom: CMA 3.112 TA: Jenna Hanchey Class Website: on Blackboard jenna.hanchey@utexas.edu CMA 7 cubicles; Weds. 2:30-4:30PM Course Description: This course will examine the various ways that cultures from around the world have used communication and argument. How do cultures use logic, stories, myth, and the spoken word to make their points? How do cultures differ in their habits of communication? Are there any similarities across different cultures in how they communicate?

1986

Coursebook, 2017

This fascinating and practical course book highlights the key problems of modern rhetoric. It embraces twelve chapters which deal with such fundamental issues as the historical background of rhetoric, rhetorical appeals and canons, rhetorical discourse, traditional and contemporary public speaking genres and their guidelines, argument and fallacies, inclusive language and rhetorical figures, persuasive writing, internet rhetoric. It also includes Appendices on glossary of rhetorical terms and transcripts of famous speeches. Through the bridged chapters, relevant and current examples the book underscores the power of verbal and non-verbal means to present a particular reality. Exercises at the end of each chapter ask students to observe carefully and comment on rhetorical situations in action. Sample speeches, newspaper/magazine covers, ads, addresses, debates reinforce observation and experience as crucial skills for budding rhetoricians as well as help students transfer skills to speech/writing and interpret literary or other texts. Good rhetoric lives in the civic bedrock of democracy and social discourse, in the foundations of any organization or society that wants to hear the views of all of its members in order to decide how to act. We hope that you find this course useful. Also hope it adds to the skills, awareness, and enjoyment that you bring to whatever activities and careers you are pursuing. With best wishes, Sevinj Zeynalova (Professor in Literature) Aytan Allahverdiyeva (Associate professor in Linguistics) Azerbaijan University of Languages

An ever-changing assemblage of material-symbolic practices, rhetoric makes things matter in some ways rather than others. Rhetoric's force is manifold: it directs attention, generates feelings, constitutes identities, shapes beliefs, informs thinking, inspires action, and much else besides. That is, rhetoric makes worlds, or the contexts in which certain beings, ideas, values, objects, and other phenomena assume significance. Day in and day out, we evaluate and make judgments about the rhetorical phenomena we encounter. We are all, in other words, engaged in the activity of rhetorical criticism. But our engagement in this activity may be more or less conscious, more or less skillful, and more or less effective. The aim of this class, therefore, is not to transform you into a rhetorical critic. Its aim is, rather, to provide you with conceptual resources that will help you identify, describe, understand, explain, and judge rhetorical phenomena. The course will also provide you with an opportunity to develop a rigorous and sustained work of rhetorical criticism. Objectives Students who successfully complete CAS 311 are able to (1) define rhetoric in their own terms; (2) articulate the intellectual and civic values of rhetorical criticism; (3) understand and explain a variety of rhetorical concepts and make use of those concepts to evaluate and judge culturally significant rhetorical artifacts; and (4) compose a conceptually nuanced and incisive rhetorical criticism essay.

Survey the methods of analysis, from a perspective of discourse as social action embedded in audiences and constraints. We will cover the history of such analysis as it developed in public use and gained academic rigor, and from speech texts toward all types of artifacts. Theoretical methodologies include text-based, sociological, critical/ materialist, dramatic/performative, and qualitative/quantitative studies. Students will analyze one text (oral, written, visual, spatial, or performed) over the entire semester.