RECENT HANDOUTS
- Medieval Arabic-Islamic Poetics and Rhetoric: Selected Bibliography of Work in English (03/12)
- Agenda for Week 10 (Mar 26)
- Notes on Martianus Capella's The Marriage of Philology and Mercury
BOOKS - TITLE ABBREVIATIONS AND AVAILABILITY
- RCR = Readings from Classical Rhetoric (available via Walker reserve and online via Walker's NetLibrary subscription)
- RMR = Readings in Medieval Rhetoric (available via Walker reserve)
- RDR = Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric (available via Walker reserve)
- Conley = Rhetoric in the European Tradition, by Thomas M. Conley (available via Walker reserve)
- Kennedy = Classical Rhetoric & Its Christian and Secular Tradition (2nd ed.), by George A. Kennedy (available via NetLibrary)
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
WEEK 1 (Jan 13) - INTRODUCTION
Our first session will be divided in half, with the first part devoted to the contemporary state of rhetorical studies and the second part devoted to the earliest examples of persuasive discourse in Western literature.
Readings
- Stanley Fish, "Rhetoric" (1995); photocopies available from PH 385. We begin with Fish's chapter from an influential handbook primarily because it represents the mainstream view on the concept of rhetoric in contemporary English studies, both in the fields of composition studies and literary studies. (However, let's not assume that the mainstream view is necessarily the most intellectually compelling view). As you will see, Fish is primarily concerned with describing the renewed interest in rhetoric during the late twentieth century as part of the broader trend of "antifoundationalism." Given this emphasis on contemporary thought, note the many references to ancient writers, especially the Sophists and the role of their thought, 2500 years later, in the recent revival of rhetoric.
- George A. Kennedy, "The Ancient Dispute Over Rhetoric in Homer" (1957).
- Homer, Book I of The Iliad, in Readings from Classical Rhetoric (= RCR). From Fish's and Fleming's descriptions of contemporary rhetorical studies, we leap back to Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides in order to examine some of the earliest representations of persuasive speech in Western literature. Although these works contain detailed descriptions of persuasive speech, none contain the word rhêtorikê, a term which emerges surprisingly late (in Plato's Gorgias). This first set of historical readings, then, will provide a backdrop for seeing how the word rhêtorikê issues from a culture that had developed already, over centuries, other ways of talking about the uses of language to persuade. Under what conditions, then, does the word rhêtorikê emerge?
- John T. Kirby, "The 'Great Triangle' in Early Greek Rhetoric and Poetics" (1990).
Recommended Background
These readings cover the same background but in progressively more depth. That is, Conley's account is briefest and, consequently, rather sketchy; Enos's is the most detailed. Make a choice depending on your time and degree of interest; but, at least, try to read Conley.
- Conley, pp. 1-7
- Kennedy, Ch. 1 "Traditional and Conceptual Rhetoric"
- Enos, Ch 1 "Emerging Notions of Rhetoric: Homer, Hesiod, and the Rhapsodes" & Ch 2 "The Evolution of Logography in Hellenic Discourse." If you have the time, these chapters provide an excellent background.
Additional
- Eric A. Havelock, “The Linguistic Task of the Presocratics." In Language and Thought in Early Greek Philosophy, 7-82 (available via Walker reserve). Monograph-length study by one of the great American classicists, examining how the emergence of philosophical discourse was made possible by the transition from an oral to literate culture, beginning in the 8th century BCE.
- Martin Heidegger, “Logos (Heraclitus, Fragment B 50)." In Early Greek Thinking: The Dawn of Western Philosophy, 59–78. Available via Walker Reserve. Although Heidegger's lecture is not directly concerned with rhetoric, the Greek term logos is arguably the most important idea of the Greek "Enlightenment" and, thus, occupies a key place in the intellectual environment that conditioned the emergence of rhetorical theory. Heidegger's account of this term, though largely ignored by Anglo-American classicists and historians of ancient philosophy, is a key text in 20th-century Continental philosophy (and its influence on English studies).
WEEK 2 (Jan 20): SOPHISTIC AND NEO-SOPHISTIC RHETORIC
The Revival of Sophistic Thought: A curious aspect of recent rhetorical studies is the considerable influence of the Sophists, a small group of pre-Socratic Greek thinkers who had been largely ignored by American historians of rhetoric throughout most of the twentieth-century. The neglect of the Sophists is due in part to our lack of their texts: only a few complete works have survived, and most of the texts exists as "fragments," that is, direct and indirect quotations from later works. In fact, many of the "fragments" are found in works composed over 500 years after the Sophists flourished. The neglect of the Sophists is due, as well, to their traditional reputation as advocates of "sophistry," of misleading and self-serving thinking. They have long stood in the shadows of Plato and Aristotle. But more recently, beginning in the late 1960s and crystallizing in the late '80s, many rhetorical scholars have found parallels between Sophistic thought and postmodern thought, in particular, a parallel regarding the relativity of knowledge.
For our second session, we will discuss two contemporary texts that have played important roles in championing the contemporary relevance of Sophistic thought. Scott's "On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic" (1967) is a germinal text, having initiated the most notable movement in contemporary rhetorical studies: epistemic rhetoric. The second text is Jarratt's "Sophistic Pedagogy, Then and Now," from her Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured (1991), a book that marks the peak of the Sophistic revival within American composition studies. In addition to these contemporary discussions of Sophistic thought, we will read perhaps the most influential of the Sophistic texts, Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen," as well as a few early responses to the Sophists composed by Alcidamas and, most important, Isocrates.
Contemporary Applications
- R. L. Scott, "On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic" (photocopy)
- Susan C. Jarratt, "Sophistic Pedagogy: Then and Now," in Rereading the Sophists (online: NetLibrary)
- Michael C. Leff, "Modern Sophistic and the Unity of Rhetoric," The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences, 19-37 (photocopy)
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "The Teaching of the 'Sophists'" (reserve)
- Kennedy, "Sophistic Rhetoric" (reserve)
Historical Scholarship
- J. de Romilly, "Rhetorical Education" in The Great Sophists in Periclean Athens (NetLibrary)
- W. K. C. Guthrie, "Gorgias on the Non-Existent" in The Sophists (reserve)
Primary Texts
- Gorgias. "Encomium of Helen." In Aristotle, On Rhetoric. Earlier version available in Readings in Classical Rhetoric (RCR).
- Alcidamas. "Concerning Those Who Write Written Speeches, or Concerning Sophists" (RCR 38-42)
- Isocrates, "Encomiun on Helen" (photocopy)
- ---, from "Against the Sophists" (RCR 45-6)
- ---, from "Antidosis"(RCR 47-57)
WEEK 3 (Jan 27) - PLATO'S GORGIAS: RHETORIC, POLITICS, AND THE BIRTH OF "PHILOSOPHY"
This week we get to the first major text in the history of rhetoric, Plato's Gorgias. Historians of rhetoric regard the Gorgias as a germinal work because it initiates the 2500-year quarrel between rhetoric and philosophy by thematizing the opposition between doxa (opinion, belief) and epistêmê (knowledge). This opposition is typically understood as epistemological, if not the very grounding of epistemology as the philosophical attempt to define "knowledge" and, thus, distinguish it from other types of assent, especially, "belief." However, we will see that Plato's Socrates is primarily concerned with what he fears are inherently negative ethical and political consequences of an approach to education based on rhetorical training.
When you read the Gorgias you'll find it has a basic three-part structure based on Socrates's interlocutors:
- Socrates – Gorgias (447a-461b)
- Socrates – Polus (461b-481b)
- Socrates – Callicles (481b-527e)
A general question to keep in mind as you read: What distinguishes each of these three exchanges from the others; for example, what is the focus of the Socrates-Gorgias exchange and in what way is it different from the other two exchanges? In addition to examining the arguments presented in this set of exchanges, we will want to consider the dramatic structure of this dialogue; that is, what is the significance of Plato's sequencing of the exchanges--why Gorgias first, Polus second, and Callicles last?
Primary Reading
- Plato, Gorgias
Suggested Readings
- J. H. Nichols, Jr., "The Rhetoric of Justice in Plato's Gorgias," in his translation of Gorgias
- W. Jaeger, "Gorgias: The Educator as Statesman," Paideia, v. 2 (reserve)
- W. Jaeger, "Greek Medicine as Paideia," Paideia, v. 3 (reserve)
- W. K. C. Guthrie, "The 'Nomos'-'Physis' Antithesis in Morals and Politics," The Sophists (reserve)
- J. L. Kastely, "In Defense of Plato's Gorgias," PMLA 106.1 (Jan, 1991): 96-109 (JSTOR)
WEEK 4 (Feb 03) - PLATO'S GORGIAS
Because of the absences last week, many of you were not able to participate in our discussion of Plato's Gorgias, perhaps the most important text in the history of Western rhetoric since it formulates many of the basic questions that shape the development of the rhetorical tradition. Hence, we will use this week to make sure we have solid footing in this text before moving on.
WEEK 5 (Feb 10) - PLATO'S PHAEDRUS: ERÔS, RHETORIC, AND WRITING
This week we turn to the second of Plato's dialogues devoted to the question of rhetorical education and its philosophical implications, the Phaedrus. Unlike the Gorgias, the Phaedrus has received a broad range of attention during this century, in part because of its suggestive juxtaposition of erôs and rhetoric.
Required:
- Plato, Phaedrus
Suggested:
- W. Jaeger, "Plato's Phaedrus: Philosophy and Rhetoric,"in Paideia, vol. III (reserve)
- J. H. Nichols, "The Rhetoric of Love and Learning in Plato's Phaedrus" in his translation of the Phaedrus
- Martha C. Nussbaum, "'This Story Isn't True': Madness, Reason, and Recantation in the Phaedrus," The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, 200-33 (reserve)
WEEK 6 (Feb 17) - ARISTOTLE'S RHETORIC: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF CIVIC DISCOURSE
Whereas Plato's dialogues focused our attention on the political and ethical dimensions of rhetorical practices, Aristotle's "art" of rhetoric will focus our attention of the internal aspects of these practices, i.e., "rhetoric" as a psychological theory of civic discourse.
A central concept of Aristotle's rhetorical theory that continues to be influential in contemporary discussions of composition pedagogy is the enthymeme. I think you might find it useful to become acquainted with this contemporary discussion before we turn to Aristotle's text; so we will begin by looking at a well-known article by a proponent of the enthymeme, John Gage's "An Adequate Epistemology for Composition: Classical and Modern Perspectives" (1984). For an overview of the philosophical assumptions underlying Aristotle's concept of the enthymeme, I direct you to my webpage "Dialectical Reasoning in Aristotle's Theory of Rhetoric":
http://www.mtsu.edu/jcomas/rhetoric/aristotle_dialectic.html
To help you with your reading of Aristotle's Rhetoric (which is a good deal longer and drier than the dialogues we have just finished reading), I have attached some notes and outlines.
Contemporary Application
- J. T. Gage, "An Adequate Epistemology for Composition: Classical and Modern Perspectives" (photocopy)
Primary Reading
- Aristotle, On Rhetoric
Suggested Reading
- Introduction to Dialectic from Aristotle's Topics 1.1-3, in Kennedy's translation (263-66)
WEEK 7 (Feb 24): HELLENISTIC & EARLY ROMAN RHETORICS
Contemporary Application
- Jeanne Fahnestock and Marie Secor, "Classical Rhetoric: The Art of Argumentation," Argument Revisited; Argument Redefined: Negotiation Meaning in the Composition Classroom, ed. Barbara Emmel, Paula Resch, and Deborrah Tenney (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996), 97-123. (photocopy)
- Dudley Bailey, "A Plea for a Modern Set of Topoi" (1964) (photocopy)
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Hellenistic and Roman Rhetorics," 29-52.
- Kennedy, "Rhetoric in the Roman Period," 98-114.
Historical Scholarship
- Friedrich Solmsen, "The Aristotelian Tradition in Ancient Rhetoric," American Journal of Philology 62 (1941): 35-50, 169-90. (photocopy)
- Malcolm Heath, "The Substructure of Stasis-Theory from Hermagoras to Hermogenes," Classical Quarterly n.s., 44 (1994): 114-29. (photocopy)
- Donovan J. Ochs, "Cicero's Topica: A Process View of Invention," Explorations in Rhetoric, ed. Ray McKerrow (Glenville, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1982), 107-18. (photocopy)
- Elaine Fantham, "Imitation and Evolution: The Discussion of Rhetorical Imitation in Cicero De Oratore 2.87-97 and Some Related Problems of Ciceronian Theory," Classical Philology 73.1 (January 1978): 1-16. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- Pseudo-Cicero, excerpts from Rhetorica ad Herennium, RCR 162-71
- Cicero, excerpts from Brutus, RCR 173-79
- ---, excerpts from De Inventione, RCR 180-90
- ---, excerpts from De Partitione Oratoria, RCR 191-94
- ---, excerpts from De Oratore, RCR 195-201
WEEK 8 (Mar 03): LATE ANTIQUITY: QUINTILIAN, TACITUS, & LONGINUS
Contemporary Application
Beginning with John T. Gage's "An Adequate Epistemology for Composition," we have read several accounts of how classical rhetorical theory can inform the contemporary teaching of composition. This week, we will look at a notable objection to such accounts, a chapter from C. H. Knoblauch and Lil Brannon's 1984 book Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing. The basic position of this book is that traditional rhetorical theory (that is, the rhetorical theory formulated in ancient Greece and developed through the Renaissance) is not suitable for contemporary composition pedagogy because it is grounded in a realist epistemology which was overthrown by Kant's arguments that knowledge is given shape by the mind. There was considerable response to the book from several important figures in composition/rhetoric (e.g., Richard Leo Enos, John T. Gage, Michael Halloran, Richard L. Larson, Linda Robertson).
- C. H. Knoblauch and Lil Brannon, "Ancient Rhetoric in Modern Classrooms: That Old-Time Religion," Ch. 2 of Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing (Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1984), 22-50. (photocopy)
- John T. Gage, review of Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing, by C. H. Knoblauch and Lil Branon, Rhetoric Review 3.1 (September 1984): 100-05. (photocopy)
- Richard Leo Enos and S. Michael Halloran, Linda Robertson, and Richard L. Larson, review of Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing, by C. H. Knoblauch and Lil Branon, College Composition and Communication 37.4 (December 1986): 502-06. (photocopy)
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Hellenistic and Roman Rhetorics," 38-52.
- Kennedy, "Literary Rhetoric," 98-114.
Historical Scholarship
- Michael Winterbottom, "Quintilian and the Vir Bonus," Journal of Roman Studies 54 (1964): 90-97. (photocopy)
- T. D. Barnes, "The Significance of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 90 (1986): 225-44. (photocopy)
- Richard Macksey, "Longinus Reconsidered," MLN 108.5 (December 1993): 913-934. [JSTOR]
- Elaine Fantham, "Imitation and Decline: Rhetorical Theory and Practice in the First Century after Christ," Classical Philology 73.2 (April 1978): 102-16. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- Quintilian, from Institutio Oratoria, RCR 210-36
- Tacitus, from Dialogue on Orators, RCR 238-50
- Longinus, from On the Sublime, RCR 322-35
SPRING BREAK (Mar 7-13)
WEEK 9 (Mar 17): EARLY LATIN MIDDLE AGES: AUGUSTINE & BOETHIUS
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Rhetoric in the Latin Middle Ages," 72-82
- Kennedy, "Judeo-Christian Rhetoric" 137-82; & "Latin Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," 196-204
Historical Scholarship
- Richard McKeon, "Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," Speculum 17.1 (January 1942): 1-32. (photocopy)
- W. R. Johnson, "Isocrates Flowering: The Rhetoric of Augustine," Philosophy and Rhetoric 9.4 (1976): 217-31. (photocopy)
- Michael C. Leff, "Boethius' De differentiis topicis, Book IV," Medieval Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Medieval Rhetoric, ed. James J. Murphy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 3-24. (photocopy)
- Joseph Anthony Mazzeo, "St. Augustine's Rhetoric of Silence," Journal of the History of Ideas 23.2 (April-June 1962): 175-96. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- Augustine, from De doctrina christiana, RCR 210-36
- Boethius, Book IV of De topicis differentis (photocopy)
WEEK 10 (Mar 24): THE MEDIEVAL "ARTES" & THE TWELFTH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Rhetoric in the Latin Middle Ages," 82-108.
- Kennedy, "Latin Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," 204-25.
Historical Scholarship
- Ernst Robert Curtius, "Literature and Education," European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, 36-61. (photocopy)
- Harry Caplan, "Classical Rhetoric and the Medieval Theory of Preaching," Classical Philology 28.2 (April 1933): 73-96. (photocopy)
- Ronald Witt, "Medieval 'Ars Dictaminis' and the Beginnings of Humanism: A New Construction of the Problem," Renaissance Quaraterly 35.1 (Spring 1982): 1-35. (photocopy)
- Douglas Kelly, "The Scope of the Treatment of Composition in the Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Arts of Poetry," Speculum 41.2 (April 1966): 261-78. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- Martianus Capella, excerpt from De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, RMR 1-5
- Alan of the Isles (Alain de Lille), from A Compendium on the Art of Preaching, RMR 228-39
- Alberic of Monte Cassino, from Flowers of Rhetoric, RMR 131-61
- Geoffrey of Vinsauf, from The New Poetics (photocopy)
- Giles of Rome, Part I of On the Difference between Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics, RMR 265-68
- Dante, Chapter VI of De vulgari eloquentia, RMR 269-71
WEEK 11 (Mar 31): RHETORIC AND THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Rhetoric and Renaissance Humanism," 109-20.
- Kennedy, "Classical Rhetoric in the Renaissance," 226-42.
Historical Scholarship
- Paul Oskar Kristeller, "Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance," Renaissance Thought and Its Sources, ed. Michael Mooney (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), 85-105. (photocopy)
- Jerrold E. Seigel, "'Civic Humanism' or Ciceronian Rhetoric? The Culture of Petrarch and Bruni," Past and Present 34 (July 1966): 3-48. (photocopy)
- Linda Gardiner Janik, "Lorenzo Valla: The Primacy of Rhetoric and the De-Moralization of History," History and Theory 12.4 (1973): 389-404. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- F. Petrarch, "Concerning the Study of Eloquence," RDR 14-17
- C. Salutati, "On Petrarch's Eloquence," RDR 18-26
- George of Trebizond, from Five Books on Rhetoric & An Oration in Praise of Eloquence, RDR 27-34
- L. Valla, from The Refinements of the Latin Language, RDR 35-41
WEEK 12 (Apr 07): RHETORIC, LOGIC, AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "Rhetoric and Renaissance Humanism," 120-33.
- Kennedy, "Classical Rhetoric in the Renaissance," 242-52.
Historical Scholarship
- Lisa Jardine, "The Place of Dialectic Teaching in Sixteenth-Century Cambridge," Studies in the Renaissance 21 (1974): 31-62. (photocopy)
- William Sinz, "Elaboration of Vives's Treatises on the Arts," Studies in the Renaissance 10 (1963): 68-90. (photocopy)
- P. A. Duhamel, "The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus," Modern Philology 46.3 (February 1949): 163-71. (photocopy)
- Manfred Hoffmann, "The Virtues of Speech," Rhetoric and Theology: The Hermeneutic of Erasmus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 169-210. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- R. Agricola, from Three Books Concerning Dialectical Invention, RDR 42-56
- D. Erasmus, from Ciceronianus, RDR 68-75
- J. L. Vives, from On the Causes of the Corruption of the Arts, RDR 82-96
- P. Melanchthon, from The Praise of Eloquence, RDR 98-110
- P. Ramus, from Logic, RDR 152-60
WEEK 13 (Apr 14): ELIZABETHAN RHETORIC & POETICS
Historical Overviews
- Conley, "English Rhetorics: 1530-1600," 133-50.
- Kennedy, "Classical Rhetoric in the Renaissance," 246-48.
Historical Scholarship
- W. J. Ong, "Tudor Writings on Rhetoric," Studies in the Renaissance 15 (1968): 39-69. (photocopy)
- Lois Agnew, "Rhetorical Style and the Formation of Character: Ciceronian Ethos in Thomas Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique," Rhetoric Review 17, no. 1 (1998): 93-106. (photocopy)
- La Rue van Hook, "Greek Rhetorical Terminology in Puttenham's the Arte of English Poesie," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 45 (1914): 111-28. (photocopy)
- Andrew Fitzmaurice, "Classical Rhetoric and the Promotion of the New World," Journal of the History of Ideas 58, no. 2 (1997): 221-43. (photocopy)
Primary Readings
- T. Wilson, from The Arte of Rhetorique, RDR 173-82
- G. Puttenham, from The Arte of English Poesie, RDR 203-17
- H. Peacham, from The Garden of Eloquence, RDR 223-32
