James Comas - Home Page
This is the home page of a small site devoted to my work as a scholar and teacher in three overlapping areas: (1) rhetorical theory and its history, (2) the history of criticism, poetics, and literary theory, and (3) composition pedagogy and its history. Much of my work is focused on the ways in which people understand themselves as writers, teachers, and intellectuals. Below, you will find links to the major sections of the site, as well as links to specific pages that others have found useful (or so they tell me).
"There are, perhaps, declarations which, for lack of anything better, ridiculously need an Attic chorus . . . ." -- Georges Bataille
Research - Main Page
- Between Politics and Ethics: Toward a Vocative History of English Studies (Southern Illinois UP, Apr 2006)
For over 25 years, English Studies has shaped itself around two terms: politics and, more recently, ethics. Yet, in spite of the influence of these terms, little effort has been spent examining the institutional conditions of their emergence, development, and relationship. More . . .
Teaching - Main Page
Current Classes (Spring 09)
- ENGL 3000 Introduction to Literary Studies
- An introduction to the study of literature, with special attention to the ethical and political dimensions of reading, as well as the basics of literary research. For English majors and minors.
- ENGL 6/7505 - History of Rhetoric: Classical to Renaissance
- An introduction to the history of rhetoric, with special attention to contemporary interest contemporary applications of classical rhetorical theory in composition pedagogy, as well as literary and cultural studies.
Recent Classes
- ENGL 6510/7510 Modern Rhetoric & Prose Style (viz., History of Rhetoric - Early-Modern to Contemporary)
- ENGL 4670 Special Topics in Writing: The Study of Rhetoric
- ENGL 3605 Applied Writing
- ENGL 1020 Research and Argumentative Writing
Resources - Main Page
- The Question of Defining "Rhetoric"
- Dialectical Reasoning in Aristotle's Theory of Rhetoric
- Kenneth Burke - Resources
CREDITS
Image: Sir John Beazley's drawing of an ancient Greek vase painting (London E467) depicting a chorus of men dancing to a pipes-player (c. 460 B.C.).
Quotation: Georges Bataille, “The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade (An Open Letter to My Current Comrades),” trans. Allan Stoekl, Visions of Excess, ed. Allan Stoekl (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985), 91. More . . .
Last update: 22-Jul-08
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
Some pages on this site contain material from my classes taught in The Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University.
Unless noted otherwise, the work on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
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