There will also be a course reader with works by writers such as P. Freire, M. L. King, and N. Mailer. The practice of rhetoric shapes the terms of both private and public life. Concerned with how speech constitutes and depends on reason to enable some collective act, rhetoric is a definitional practice that forges the activity of politics, determines the form and substance of law, and opens a site for individuals to represent their interests, experiences, and needs to others. This practice, while it builds a foundation for collective life, may also reveal that this ground is not stable. In the moment when we encounter others differences, bodies, and speech, we discover that our definitions are incomplete.
Rhetoric thus appears as a necessary but risky form of human action.
Today, in the face of heated debates over what we can say and do as a global community, American citizens, and members of local organizations and families, there is a need to understand how rhetoric works and how language shapes and limits our encounters with others. This course offers an introduction to how we might begin to understand and critique rhetorical practices and theory. Insofar as it fulfills the Reading and Composition requirement of the University, it will investigate how we might read and write critically about rhetorical texts. To be successful, this course requires that students actively read and participate. It is both reading and writing intensive.