English 30243: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Instructor: Email: Office:
Office Hours:
When:
Where:
Joel Overall
joel.overall@tcu.edu
Reed 402
MW 1-5
MWF 10-10:50
Bailey 106
Texts:
Jack Conroy, The Disinherited (1933)
Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks (1933)
Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty (1935)
John Steinbeck, Harvest Gypsies: On the Road toward the Grapes of
Wrath (1936)
John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle (1936)
Course Outcomes:
• Demonstrate an ability to analyze diversity within/across culture.
• Demonstrate the ability to use writing as a means of gaining and
expressing an understanding of discipline-specific context.
• Demonstrate an understanding of cultural conversations of 1930s
America by discussing and writing about assigned texts.
• Use the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke to explain the
rhetorical nature of all texts and to analyze how 1930s texts shape
and are shaped by their cultural scene.
• Compose a multimodal presentation that provides historical/
cultural background about key events or institutions of
Depression-era America.
• Synthesize and integrate the ideas of others into a rhetorical
history project, balancing their own voices with other sources and
using standard MLA ciation style.
The Culture Wars of 1930s America:
Kenneth Burke wrote of the early 1930s that it was “a time when
there was a general feeling that our traditional ways were headed for
a tremendous change, maybe even a permanent collapse.” At stake,
then, for Burke and artists and activists of the Depression era was
nothing less than the fate of the country. This course examines the
culture wars of the 1930s: the rich rhetorical and literary practices of
Marxists, fellow travelers, liberals, and conservatives as they battled
over questions not only of what direction the country should take
politically and economically, but also of how “the good life” might
be defined and, more importantly, what kind of texts--and by whom
and in what forms (novels? plays? speeches? photographs? paintings?
music?)--would help bring this good life into being. We’ll study some
of these texts, and when we do so, we’ll be reading them rhetorically-that is, with an eye to analyzing how language (and symbols, more
generally) create effects on audiences.
English 30423: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Course Requirements
Travel Guides
Travel guides are a very 1930s genre: the Federal Writers’ Project commissioned writers (Zora Neale Hurston
was one) to write guidebooks for every state and to collect
samples of folklore and folksongs. Travel guides are an
appropriate genre for us because we have such little knowledge of the decade we’re “travelling” through this semester.
Five times throughout the semester you will turn in 350500 words (1.5-2 double-spaced typed pages) of writing
that includes your analysis to some readings. The final TG
will be an in-class presentation of the 1930s figure you’ve
studied. Travel guides are designed to enable you to explore aspects of the 1930s we can’t cover in class, broaden
your understanding of 1930s people, events, and texts, and
prepare you to compose rhetorical history projects by giving you practice analyzing a variety of texts.
Rhetorical History Project
For the rest of this semester, we will work together on a
rhetorical history project: a collaboratively written “reader’s guide” to the culture wars of the 1930s. The culture
wars were on-going conversations—struggles—to redefine
America and to determine the best means of rebuilding a
vigorous and wholesome society. That is, we will place important artists, critics, and politicians in a 1930s “rhetorical
parlor,” a social space where they are engaged in all kinds
of cultural “conversations” that help shape their texts and
to which those texts respond. This project will consist of
three main assignments: 1) an introductory essay; 2) a collaborative multimedia project; and 3) a rhetorical analysis.
RH1: Introductory Essay
Our first step is to find out as much as we can about the
1930s. We’ll build our rhetorical parlor by studying and
sharing information about some significant figure from the
1930s. We’ll start with a class blog with individual wikipedia pages. Then, each person will write an overview of an
important artist, critic, or politician, including a summary
of 1-3 texts by this figure. You will write an essay (5-7
pages) that gives us an overview of a 1930s artist, critic,
social movement leader, or political figure and a few of his/
English 30423: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
RH2: Collaborative Multimedia Project
The second part of the rhetorical history assignment is a
collaborative mini-documentary film focusing on one aspect
of 1930s history. Your group will be responsible for collecting a substantial assortment of images, graphics, videos
(if available), maps, and music along with textual research
(spoken or written onscreen) and for arranging these elements in a documentary film to provide a comprehensive
understanding of the subject. Your research for this documentary should go well beyond the Google image and/
or Wikipedia search, and we’ll have class time reserved to
understand and practice the kind of research you’re expected to undertake. These documentaries will help develop
our sense of the times, particularly some of the events our
parlor figures witnessed or participated in or reacted to.
RH3: Rhetorical Analysis
Using the information we’ve gathered in Parts 1 & 2, you’ll
write a rhetorical analysis, discussing how 1-3 texts by
your parlor figure both respond to and are shaped by the
on-going conversation in the “rhetorical parlor” of 1930s
America. Your goal in the rhetorical history project is to
help your classmates and me understand how your chosen text emerges from and responds to on-going cultural
conversations of the 1930s. A rhetorical history is a rhetorical analysis (even if the text being analyzed is “literature”): the goal is not simply to help us better understand
the text (though your analysis should do that); the goal is
also to help us understand the text as a rhetorical act, an
argument—as a product created by a particular writer in
a particular culture for a particular audience and purpose.
You’ll want to place your text in the rhetorical parlor: Who
is the writer addressing? What’s s/he saying? Why—what
has s/he read that provokes a response? What was going on
that helped to shape your text? That is, show that we can
explain/understand this text better if we know about “x”
contextual information.
In addition to the collaborative element of the assignment,
you will write an informal 2-page paper describing the rhetorical choices made in the project and evaluating everyone
in the group (including yourself) with a grade of excellent,
satisfactory, and unsatisfactory. This individual essay will
count 5% toward your final course grade.
Grade Breakdown:
• RH1: Introductory Essay
• RH2: Collaborative Multimedia Project
• RH3: Rhetorical Analysis
• Travel Guides (5 @ 4% each)
• Final Evaluative Experience
her major texts “composed” between 1929 and December
1941. Your purpose is primarily informative, but you will
need a thesis that makes a claim about your figure’s beliefs
and/or importance. These essays will be posted on eCollege so that we all have access to each other’s research.
20%
25%
30%
20%
5%
English 30423: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Course Policies
Attendance and Participation:
Due to the collaborative nature of this course, it is
important that you come to class every day and are involved in class discussions and activities. I will abide by
the English department policy that states that 3 weeks
worth of absences (9 absences) is grounds for failure of
the course.
Late Work:
Major projects turned in late will be penalized 10% per
day, including weekends. Homework will not be accepted late.
Classroom Atmosphere:
I envision our classroom as a place where all of us can
share our ideas, thoughts, and questions without fear
of being made fun of or embarrassed. Our classroom
interaction will be based on respect for all of the writers and readers we encounter this semester.
The Writing Center:
The William L. Adams Writing Center is an academic
support service available to all TCU students. Writing
specialists and peer tutors are available for one-on-one
tutorials from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in
the Rickel Building and from 6 to 9 p.m. in the library
computer lab on Sunday through Thursday evenings.
Drop-ins are welcome.
The New Media Writing Studio:
(NMWS) is available to assist students with audio,
video, multimedia, and webdesign projects. Located in
Rickel 38 (the basement of the Recreation Center’s academic wing), the Studio serves as an open lab for use by
students during posted hours. The Studio has both pc
and Mac computers outfitted with Adobe CS3, which includes Adobe Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash,
and InDesign. A variety of equipment is available for
checkout to students whose teachers have contacted the
Studio in advance. For more information and a schedule
of open hours, see www.newmedia.tcu.edu
ADA:
Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should
contact the Coordinator of Services for Students with
Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services located
in Sadler Hall, 11. Accommodations are not retroactive,
therefore, students should contact the Coordinator
as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box
297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-7486.
English 30423: Intermediate Composition
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Academic Dishonesty:
“An academic community requires the highest standards of honor and
integrity in all of its participants if it is to fulfill its missions. In such
a community faculty, students, and staff are expected to maintain
high standards of academic conduct. The purpose of this policy is to
make all aware of these expectations. Additionally, the policy outlines
some, but not all, of the situations which can arise that violate these
standards. Further, the policy sets forth a set of procedures, characterized by a “sense of fair play,” which will be used when these standards are violated. In this spirit, definitions of academic misconduct
are listed below. These are not meant to be exhaustive.
I. Academic Misconduct
Any act that violates the spirit of the academic conduct policy is considered academic misconduct. Specific examples include, but are not
limited to:
A. Cheating. Includes, but is not limited to:
1. Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other
report, or computer files and listings.
2. Using in any academic exercise or academic setting, material and/
or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test.
3. Collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during an
academic exercise without the permission of the person in charge of
the exercise.
4. Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release.
5. Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to
substitute for oneself, in a manner that leads to misrepresentation of
either or both students work.
B. Plagiarism. The appropriation, theft, purchase, or obtaining by
any means another’s work, and the unacknowledged submission or
incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s work without
giving credit therefore.
C. Collusion. The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.
D. Abuse of resource materials. Mutilating, destroying, concealing,
or stealing such materials.
E. Computer misuse. Unauthorized or illegal use of computer software or hardware through the TCU Computer Center or through
any programs, terminals, or freestanding computers owned, leased,
or operated by TCU or any of its academic units for the purpose of
affecting the academic standing of a student.
F. Fabrication and falsification. Unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise. Falsification involves altering information for use in any academic exercise.
Fabrication involves inventing or counterfeiting information for use
in any academic exercise.
G. Multiple submission. The submission by the same individual of
substantial portions of the same academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once in the same or another class without
authorization.
H. Complicity in academic misconduct. Helping another to commit
an act of academic misconduct.
I. Bearing false witness. Knowingly and falsely accusing another
student of academic misconduct.”
All cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the
Director of Composition. Sanctions imposed for cases of academic
misconduct range from zero credit for the assignment to expulsion
from the University. This policy applies to homework and drafts as
well as final papers.
English 30423: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Unit One Calendar - Getting to Know the Rhetorical Parlor of the 1930s
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
8/22
8/24
8/26
Introduction to 1930s Rhetorical Parlor
Decade overview: The Century: America’s Time with Getting Our Bearings: 1930s Cultural Criticism
• Kenneth Burke, “Waste--The Future of ProsperPeter Jennings (Volume 2: The 30s) ABC News.
ity”
1999.
• Helen Keller, “Put Your Husband in the Kitchen”
• Assign Rhetorical History 1
8/29
8/31
9/2
Epideictic rhetoric, the 3 appeals
Identification and the range of rhetoric
Radical epideictic rhetoric
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1st Inaugural Address • Foss, Foss, and Trapp introduction to Kenneth
• Keller, “Thoughts That Will Not Let Me Sleep”
(Web)
Burke
• Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”
• Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives Introduction; • Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land”
“Identifying Nature of Property”
Last day to choose your parlor figure
9/5
9/7
9/9
Labor Day Holiday
The 1930s Literary Wars. Blogging the 30s
• Literary Wars handout on eCollege
Library Research
Meet in Library Room 219
TG 1 Due
9/12
9/14
9/16
John Steinbeck, Harvest Gypsies
• Draft of parlor wikipedia page due
In Dubious Battle through Ch. 4
In Dubious Battle through Ch. 7
• Parlor figure wikipedia page due with links
9/19
9/21
9/23
In Dubious Battle through Ch. 11
In Dubious Battle through Ch. 13
In Dubious Battle in the parlor
• Finish In Dubious Battle
• In Dubious Battle reviews
• Sample RH1 paper
English 30423: Rhetorical Practices in Culture
Course Objectives, Policies, and Syllabus
Unit One Calendar (continued)
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
9/26
9/28
9/30
On the Left--Michael Gold:
• “Proletarian Realism”
• “Go Left Young Writer”
• “Why I am a Communist”
• Sampler of “Red” poems
First American Writers’ Congres (1935):
• Call for An American Writers’ Congress
• Jack Conroy, “Worker as Writer”
• Edwin Seaver, “What is a Proletarian Novel?”
• Edmund Wilson, “The Case of the Author”
Burke vs. Tate
• Burke, “Revolutionary Symbolism in America”
• Allen Tate, “Poetry and Politics”
10/5
10/7
Harlem Renaissance: Hughes and Hurston
• Hughes, “To Negro Writers” “Cora Unashamed”
and “The Blues I’m Playing” (Ways of White Folks)
• Hurston, “Art and Such”
RH1 DUE
Assign RH2: Collaborative Multimedia Project
• “Passing” (Ways of White Folks)
10/3
Draft of RH1 due for peer review
Other important dates
10/12
10/24
11/4
11/11
12/8
12/16
TG2 Due
TG3 Due
TG4 Due
RH2: Collaborative Multimedia Project Due
TG5 Due
RH3: Rhetorical Analysis Due
8:00-10:30 Final Evaluative Experience