Course Calendar |
| Week |
Topic |
Text Readings |
Assignments |
| Aug 17 |
Introduction - Defining Rhetorical Theory
The Origins and Early History of Rhetoric
Sophistic Rhetoric |
Chs. 1 & 2 |
|
| Aug 24 |
Plato versus the Sophists
Plato's Gorgias and Phaedrus |
Ch. 3 |
|
| Aug 31 |
Aristotle on Rhetoric
Aristotelian definition of Rhetoric
Aristotelian Proofs and Arguments
Matters of Style |
Ch. 4 |
|
| Sept. 7 |
Report 1 due
Exam 1 |
|
Report 1 due
Exam 1 |
| Sept. 14 |
Roman Society and the place of Rhetorical Theory and Cicero
Quintilian and Rhetoric in the Later Roman Empire |
Ch. 5 |
|
| Sept 21 |
Rhetoric and the Seven Liberal Arts
Rhetoric in the Early Middle Ages
Rhetoric in Christian Europe
St. Augustine |
Ch. 6 |
|
| Sept 28 |
The New Rhetorical Arts of the Middle Ages
Rhetoric in the Renaissance
Humanism, Rhetoric and Classical Texts |
Ch. 7 |
|
| Oct 5 |
Enlightenment Rhetoric-Vico
British Rhetoric
Elocutionary and Belletristic Movements |
Ch. 8 |
|
| Oct 12 |
Report #2 due
Exam #2 |
Oral reports on Monday
Exam on Wednesday |
Report 2 due
Exam 2 |
| Oct 19 |
Campbell and Whatley
Development of Speech Communication |
See handouts |
|
| Oct 26 |
Argumentation and Rational Discourse
Chaim Perlman and the Centrality of Audience Stephen Toulmin and the Uses of Argument |
Ch. 9 |
|
| Nov 2 |
Jurgen Habermas and the Conditions of Rational Discourse
Exam #3 |
Ch. 10 --pp. 238-243 |
|
| Nov 9 |
Rhetoric in Social Context
Kenneth Burke and Rhetoric as Symbolic Action
Rhetoric and Misunderstanding - I.A. Richards
Rhetoric as Situational-Bitzer
Rhetorical Constructs - Michael Mc Gee and the Ideograph |
Ch. 10 pp. 224-237 |
|
| Nov 16 |
Rhetorical Constructs - Booth, Bormann, Fisher
Rhetoric and the Preservation of Culture - Richard Weaver
Mediated Rhetoric and Marshal McLuhan |
Ch. 10 --pp 237-238 and handouts |
|
| Nov 30 |
Electronic Texts and the Future of Rhetoric
Group Reports |
Ch. 11 |
|
| Dec 7 |
Final Exams |
|
See University Schedule |