Modern Rhetoric and Prose Style
ENGL 6/7510 - Fall 2009
W 6:00-9:00 · Peck Hall 301
http://www.mtsu.edu/~jcomas/6510/

Dr. James Comas
PH 385 • 898-2606
jcomas@mtsu.edu
Office hours: TWH 2:00-4:00

S Y L L A B U S

. . . our questions will have nothing more to name but the texture of the text, reading and writing, mastery and play, the paradoxes of supplementarity, and the graphic relations between the living and the dead . . . . - J. Derrida, "Plato's Pharmacy"

Scope and Structure of this Class

Chronology, History, and Historiography

"History of Rhetoric" courses are taught typically as a survey of the rhetorical canon; and the scope of such courses is represented as a chronological range, for example, "Ancient to Renaissance" or "Early-Modern to Contemporary." The range of our seminar is, of course, early-modern to contemporary. But the intellectual scope is a bit more complex in that we will be concerned not only with writings from the past but, in addition, with the problem of our relationship to the past. That is, we will be concerned not only with what Montaigne, Bacon, Pascal, Vico, Campbell, Burke, and others had to say about rhetoric but with the reception of their ideas by contemporary scholars. The scope of our seminar, then, is historiographical as well as chronological; and I tend to define historiography as a line of inquiry that can be posed with the kind of question Gerald Bruns raises near the beginning of "What Is Tradition?": "how do we stand with respect to all that comes down to us from the past?" I propose, then, that in order to address this question, we will return throughout the semester to two basic topics (or topoi in the sense of ideas having a presence we cannot ignore): the idea of a rhetorical tradition and the problem of "modernity."

The Idea of a Rhetorical Tradition

One cannot study rhetoric for any length of time before confronting the presence of the rhetorical tradition. We will be interested, then, in thinking about the relation with the past the we call "tradition.

The Problem of "Modernity"

The chronological range of our readings, stretching from the late-sixteenth century to the present, coincides with what contemporary historians and philosophers increasingly characterize as the epoch of "modernity" (although there remains considerable disagreement on what constitutes modernity and thus disagreement on the character of our relationship with modernity).

Books

In the following list of required and recommended books, you will see that the ISBNs are linked to Amazon.com, where you'll find used copies at reasonable prices.

Required

Most of our readings will come from three books, which I've asked the campus bookstore to order. As I'm sure you all know, less expensive, used copies of academic books often can be found via Amazon.com and other online companies; so I've included ISBN numbers below, which sometimes can make it easier to order online (especially when there are several editions of a title):

P. Bizzell & B. Herzberg (eds.), The Rhetorical Tradition, 2nd ed. (Bedford/St. Martins, 2001). 0312148399.

Most of our primary readings will come from this anthology. Be sure to get the 2nd edition (2001), which is significantly different from the earlier, 1990 edition.

T. Conley, Rhetoric in the European Tradition (Chicago UP, 1990). 9780226114897.

Although somewhat dated now, Conley's book still provides the best survey of the history of European (or, more accurately, Euro-American) rhetoric.

K. Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives (U of California P, 1969). 9780520015463.

Although we will be reading excerpts from many 20th-century rhetorical theorists, I have ordered A Rhetoric of Motives because it is, arguably, the most important work of rhetorical theory since Aristotle's On Rhetoric and, thus, deserves special consideration.

Recommended Books

Winifred Bryan Horner, ed. The Present State of Scholarship in Historical and Contemporary Rhetoric, Rev. ed (Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1990). 0826207634

Although in need of updating, Horner's volume remains the only comprehensive bibliography of contemporary scholarship in the history of rhetoric.

Reserve Books

All three required books and Horner's bibliographical volume are available via Walker Library's reserve desk (2 hours, overnight). In addition, to help acquainted you with other standard works in the history of rhetoric (and to provide fair access to these materials), I have put a sizable number of books on reserve, which I have listed on a separate handout.

Written Work

Weekly Responses

In order to help you begin exploring particular readings in more depth, I ask that, each week, you write a short response (2-3 pages) to the readings (except those weeks when formal papers are due or when you are presenting a précis).

Précis

I will ask you to prepare a written précis on a secondary text (an article or book chapter) and to present this précis in a 10-15 minute talk. As part of your presentation, please provide each of us with a copy of your précis.

Formal Project

Formal written work will consist in the development of a project over three papers: 1) a short paper describing a problem/question that you'd like to address; 2) a longer bibliographic paper, in which you review established scholarship on the question you're addressing; and 3) a final, article-length paper that incorporates the work of the earlier papers along with your contribution to addressing the problem/question.

My assessment of your work will be based on (1) your contributions to the seminar, in the form of class discussion and written responses to the readings, (2) your précis, and (3) the development of an intellectual project resulting in a “finished,” rdquo; article-length paper.

Topical Outline of Sessions

To provide you with a more immediate sense of the trajectory of the semester, here is a topical outline of our sessions.

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Last update: 10-Dec-06

The contents of this page do not reflect any official positions of Middle Tennessee State University. The sole responsibility for these contents lies with the author:

Dr. James N. Comas (jcomas@mtsu.edu)
Middle Tennessee State University
English Dept., Box 70
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
615-898-2606

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