COMM 3300: Rhetorical Foundations of Human Communication
Professor: McDaniel
Office: 90 Heflems
E-mail: mcdaniej(co1orado.edu Phone: 2-6105
Hours: 8.30-9, 1.45-11.15 MTWTF & by appointment
Required Texts
Barry Brummett: Reading Rhetorical Theory.
James Jasinsld: Sourcebook on Rhetoric.
The Basics
This course offers a tracing of key figures and concepts from the
Western tradition with a focus on the social
implications that arise from historically specific ways of thinkin
g about human communication. We will sketch
profiles of theorists and their theories starting with the ancien
t Greeks, then the Romans, then figures from the
Middle Ages and Renaissance, next several thinkers of the Enligh
tenment period, and we will round out the course
with a diverse set of 20thcentury philosophers. Throughout the
course, our attention will fall upon how ways of
conceptualizing “communication” and its family of terms (e.g.,
discourse, transaction, interaction, participation, etc.)
carry sociopolitical weights. Likewise, we will attend throug
hout the course to how social actions and
interactions—”ordinary talk,” if you will—often assert tacit, latent,
or implicit theories of what “communication” is
or ought to be. These considerations of the sociopolitical implications
of theory suggest a rhetorical perspective on
human communication because they bring out the persuasive elemen
t in thought and action.
Our task in this course, therefore, concerns applying such a perspe
ctive to key figures and concepts that effectively
constitute the Western tradition—that is, our tangled legacy
of ways of thinking about the human power of
communication. Our aim involves assembling accounts of
theorists and theories that brings out what’s at stake,
what’s at risk, in cultivating specific visions of self, symbol,
and society at certain moments in time. It also involves
assembling accounts that challenge theories and theories on three
grounds:
I. Ontological (what notion of “the world” or “reality” arises
from a theory/theorist)
2. Epistemologic& (how human beings come to “know” “the world”
or “the real” according to the theory/theorist)
3. Axiological (what human beings ought to do or how they
should act according to the theory/theorist)—put in the langua
ge of science and faith, what
human beings can realistically hope for given the way of the world
and our capacity to intelligently grasp it.
The goal is not just to run through these items like a theoret
ical checklist. Moreover, the objective is to ask
questions from these pivots in a manner that challenges us to
propose “better answers” than the theorists/theories we
study. We can always ask how or to what extent culture determ
ines theory, and we will ask that question, but this
topic will not drive our discussions. Instead, how theorie
s work against as well as within their cultural envelopes
seems a shrewder choice of questions because it focuses
us on the dynamic struggle of text within/against context,
figure within/against time.
Thus, the bases of the course—reading, lecture, and conver
sation—require that we all come to class prepared to
discuss, challenge, and respond every day.
Assignments/Grading/Attendance
A midterm and a final exam will constitute the bulk of your
graded work. The midterm and fmal exams will be a
combination of multiple choice, matching, fill-in-the-blank,
short-answer, and essay questions. A small research
project involving tracking down references and supply
ing commentary for a small section of a theoretical treatise
will make up the rest. Guidelines for all these assignments
will be handed out after the first week of class, when we
know how many students will plan on finishing the course
. (I need to know the number before I can hand out
assignment sheets because the assignments assume group
collaboration, hence numbers of students.)
Prepared attendance is required. Expect “pop-quizzes”
on readings for each day to motivate prepared attendance.
Midterm:
100 points
Final:
200 points
Research project: 100 points
1
“Pop Quizzes”
TOTAL POSSIBLE
P (0 points)/F (-10 points)
400 points
GRADE RANGES
“A” range
“B” range
“C” range
“D” range
“F” range
3 60-400
320-359
280-3 19
240-279
0-259
Course Schedule
LJuly 8-li (T-F)
T: course introduction
W: Gorgias, “Encomium of Helen.”
TR: Isocrates: “Antidosis” & “Agaist the Sophists”
F: Plato, Phaedrus
II. July 14-18 (M-F)
M: Aristotle, Rhetoric
T: Cicero, De Oratore
W: Quintillian: Institutio Oratoria
T: Longinus, On the Sublime
F: Review
III. July 2 1-25 (M-F)
M: St. Augustine, On Christine Doctrine & Confessions (hando
ut)
T: Christine de Pizan, A Medieval Woman ‘.c Mirror ofHon
or
W: Margaret Fell, Women ‘s Speaking Justfied... by Scriptu
res
T: Erasmus, De Copia & Praise ofFolly (handout)
F: Bacon, The Advancement ofLearning & Novum Organu
m
IV. July 28-August 1 (M-F)
M: Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
T: Vico, On the Study ofMethods of Our Time
W: Campbell, The Philosophy ofRhetoric
T: Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belle Lettres & Whate
ly, Elements ofRhetoric
F: Leslie, Miss Leslie’s Behavior Book
V. August 4-8 (M-F)
M: Burke, Philosophy ofLiteraiy Form, Grammar
ofMotives, & Rhetoric ofMotives
T: Foucault, Archeology ofKnowledge & Asante, “The
Afrocentric Idea”
W: McLuhan, Understanding Media
T: Campbell, Man Cannot Speak for Her & Spitzack!Cart
er, “Women in Communication.
F: FINAL EXAM
2
.