English 891TT - S-Intro to Rhetorical Theory

The study of rhetoric is traditionally concerned with how messages are crafted to achieve desired effects in audiences. The oldest rhetorical theories were mainly arts of public speech, but rhetoric has also been important as a school subject devoted to eloquence more generally, including arts of written composition. Today, "rhetoric" is probably best known as a term of political abuse; but, in the academy, it survives in a variety of approaches for looking at the suasory function of discourse. Whether revived or moribund, capacious or narrow, rhetorical theory includes some of the best-developed and most powerful verbal disciplines available to us. We'll focus on the development of ancient rhetorical theory and pedagogy in classical Greece, especially as that development can be traced in the works of Plato and Aristotle, their forerunners, and their successors. But we'll also examine theoretical and pedagogical developments beyond that time and place, e.g., in non-Western rhetorical traditions. And we'll test the value of rhetorical theory in contemporary life, especially in terms of new ways of thinking about language, performance, character, community, and reason.

This class is open to English graduate students only.