Jan. |
24 |
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Rhetoric, Culture, and Technology: Introduction
Overview and Self-Introductions
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31 |
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Orality and Literacy: From Homer to Plato
Due: Class Readings: Homer, Iliad, Book 1; Plato,
Republic, Book V, Chapters XVIII-XIX, Book VI, Chapters XX,
XXIV; Book VII, Chapter XXV, Book X, Chapter XXXV; Eric A. Havelock,
Preface to Plato, Chapters 3, 4, 11, and 12
Due: Presentation on Individual Readings: Options: Walter J. Ong,
Orality and Literacy, Chapter 3, pages 31-57, and/or Chapter 4;
or Other (1 page max.)
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Feb. |
7 |
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Rhetoric and Reality: The Sophists, Plato's Gorgias, and Plato's
Phaedrus
Due: Class Readings: The Older Sophists, pages 18-19
(Protagoras, " Truth or Refutations" ), 42-46 (Gorgias,
" On the Nonexistent or On Nature"), 279-93 ( Dissoi
Logoi or Dialexeis); Plato, Phaedrus, Chapters XIX-XXV
Due: Presentation on Individual Readings: Options: The Older
Sophists, pages 50-54 (Gorgias, "Encomium of Helen"); Schiappa,
Protagoras and Logos, Chapters 5 and 7; George A. Kennedy,
Classical Rhetoric, Chapter 4, pages 58-74; or Other (1 page
max.)
Due: Ideas for Conference Paper 1
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14 |
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Rhetoric and Representation: Aristotle and Jacques Derrida
Due: Class Readings: Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book I, Chapters 1-3,
9; Book 2, Chapters 18-23; Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology,
Part I, Chapter I, pages 6-26
Due: Presentation on Individual Readings: Options: S. Michael Halloran,
"Aristotle's Concept of Ethos"; George A. Kennedy, Classical
Rhetoric, Chapter 4, pages 74-93; James C. Raymond, "Enthymemes,
Examples, and Rhetorical Method," in Essays on Classical Rhetoric
and Modern Discourse; Nedra Reynolds, " Ethos as Location";
Vincent B. Leitch, On Deconstruction, Chapters 2 and 3; or Other
(1 page max.)
Due: Preview of Conference Paper 1
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21 |
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Due: Presentation of Conference Paper 1:
Schedule (in .pdf)
Due: Conference Paper 1 (7-8 pages)
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28 |
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Intertextuality/Contextuality 1: Mikhail M. Bakhtin on
Polyphony
Due: Class Readings: Mikhail M. Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's
Poetics, pages 5-8, 16, 109-12, 132, 181-204
Due: Presentation on Individual Readings: Options: Homi K. Bhabha,
"Culture's In-Between," in Questions of Cultural Identity; Mikhail
N. Epstein, After the Future, Chapter 9; Gary Saul Morson and
Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Bakhtin, Chapter 4, especially pages 123-36
(on dialogue) and pages 146-61 (on single-voiced and double-voiced
words), and/or 6, especially pages 231-59 (on polyphony); or Other
(1 page max.)
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Mar. |
6 |
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Intertextuality/Contextuality 2: "Texts" and Politics: Walter
Benjamin
Due: Class Readings: Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of
Its Technological Reproducibility," in The Work of Art
Due: Presentation on Individual Readings: Options: Walter Benjamin,
Exposés (1935, 1939), in The Arcades Project ; Margaret
Cohen, "Benjamin's Phantasmagoria"; Richard Wolin, Walter
Benjamin, Chapter 6, pages 183-97; or Other (1 page max.)
Due: Ideas for Conference Paper 2
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20 |
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Intertextuality/Contextuality 3: "Texts" in Context: Roland
Barthes Due: Class Readings: Roland Barthes, "The Death of
the Author" in Image — Music — Text; Celeste
Michelle Condit, "The Rhetorical Limits of Polysemy," in
Contemporary Rhetorical Theory; Michael Calvin McGee,"Text,
Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture," in
Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
Optional Readings: Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text," in Image
— Music — Text; Roland Barthes, S/Z, pages 3-15;
or Other (1 page max.)
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27 |
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Due: Preview of Conference Paper 2:
Schedule (in .pdf)
Due Friday, April 6, 8:00 p.m.: Conference Paper 2 (7-8 pages)
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Apr. |
3 |
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Rhetoric and Identification 1: Kenneth Burke on Identification
and Transcendence
Due: Class Readings: Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages
19-23, 37-39, 43-46, 49-59, 197-203, 221-33, 328-33 (Photocopy)
Optional Readings: Options: Kenneth Burke, "Rhetoric—Old and New";
Timothy W. Crusius, "A Case for Kenneth Burke's Dialectic and Rhetoric";
George H. Mead, Mind, Self, and Society, pages 253-89; Kris
Rutten, André Mottart, and Ronald Stoetaert, "The Rhetorical
Construction of a Nation"; Ross Wolin, The Rhetorical Imagination of
Kenneth Burke, Chapter 7; or Other (1 page max.)
Due: Ideas for Draft Journal Article
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10 |
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Rhetoric and Identification 2: Identity, Identification, and
Difference
Due: Class Readings: Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric"; Stuart
Hall, "Introduction: Who Needs 'Identity'? in Questions of Cultural
Identity
Optional Readings: Options: Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological
State Apparatuses," pages 106-26; James W. Bernauer and Michael Mahon,
"The Ethics of Michel Foucault"; Kenneth S. Zagacki, "Constitutive
Rhetoric Reconsidered"; or Other (1 page max.)
Due: Ideas for Draft Journal Article
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24 |
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Rhetoric and Digital Media: Marshall McLuhan and Jean
Baudrillard
Due: Class Readings: Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy,
pages 11-18, 31-32, 137-41, 159-61; Marshall McLuhan, Understanding
Media, Chapter 2; Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political
Economy of the Sign, Chapter 2, pages 63-69; Chapter 9, pages 164-66,
169-84
Optional Readings: Jean Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra"
in Simulacra and Simulation; Marshall and Eric McLuhan, Laws
of Media, Chapter 2; Marshall McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers, The
Global Village, Chapters 7 and/or 8; Gary Genosko, McLuhan and
Baudrillard, Chapters 5 and/or 6; Paul Hegarty, Jean Baudrillard:
Live Theory, Chapters 2 and/or 5; William Merrin, Baudrillard
and Media, Chapters 1, 2, and/or 3; or Other (1 page max.)
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May |
1 |
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Written Examination in VCC South 6:00-8:15 p.m. (2 hours, 15 minutes)
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8 |
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Presentation of Draft Journal Article:
Schedule (in .pdf)
Due Friday, May 11, 5:00 p.m.: Draft Journal Article (15-18 pages)
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Policies
Assignments and Class Activities: Course assignments are intended to
provide preparation for the PhD qualifying examination, dissertation
research, and the development of conference papers and journal
publications. Assignments include readings in rhetoric in relation to
culture and technology in oral, written, print, and digital modes, a
written examination roughly approximating one component of the qualifying
examination, short versions of two conference papers, and a draft journal
submission. Class activities include discussions of class readings,
short presentations on individual readings, informal presentations of
conference papers in progress, and formal presentations of conference
papers and the draft journal submission.
The conference papers and the draft journal article should be addressed
to appropriate venues in rhetoric or communication, composition, or HCI
and technical communication. Each should include a grounding in issues and
problems in the relevant current literatures, an explication of applicable
theories and/or methods, a description of the data to be analyzed, and an
analysis of significant oral, written, print, or digital texts in their
relationship to other texts and their historical and cultural contexts.
Submission of Class Assignments: Each assignment must be submitted
no later than the beginning of the class hour on the due date
listed in the Schedule of Classes and Assignments. Assignments
must be submitted in hard copy, typed, via email, or via
the Learning Management System, in standard format such as APA, MLA, or Chicago
style (see also The Chicago Manual
of Style Online).
Late Penalties: The late penalty for each assignment submitted after
the due date and time for the assignment will be 1/10 of the value of
the assignment plus an additional 1/10 of the value of the assignment
for each successive class period (or equivalent time period) after the
due date and time (that is, 1/2 point for a 5-point assignment, 1 point
for a 10-point assignment, 2 points for a 20-point assignment, etc.). The
late penalty for the final assignment (draft journal submission or design
report) will be 2 1/2 points for each day or part of a day late. Late
penalties will be assessed in points (of 100 total for the course).
Class Attendance: Class attendance and participation in class activities
are required. Students who miss class for extended periods of time without
permission or explanation will be reported to the Dean of Students Office
or the Department of Public Safety for support and assistance, as needed.
Requests for accommodations, exceptions, extensions, or incomplete
grades due to illnesses or personal emergencies must be supported by
written documentation from the Dean of Students or the Dean of the
Graduate School.
Electronic Citizenship and Intellectual Property: Rensselaer's policies
on electronic citizenship and intellectual property are explained in Rensselaer's Guidelines for Computer Use. Violations
of these policies will be reported to the Dean of Students and the Dean
of the student's college or school.
Students' Rights and Responsibilities: Students'
rights and responsibilities are explained in The Rensselaer
Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities: 2010-2012 and govern
the conduct of both faculty and students. Academic dishonesty is explained
on pp. 14-17 and is strictly prohibited. Incidents of academic dishonesty
on any assignment will be graded 0 points for the assignment and will be
reported to the Dean of Students and the Dean of the student's college
or school, with a request that the incident be entered into the student's
permanent record at Rensselaer.
Student-teacher relationships are built on trust. For example, students
must trust that teachers have made appropriate decisions about the
structure and content of the courses they teach, and teachers must
trust that the assignments which students turn in are their own. Acts
that violate this trust undermine the educational process.
The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities
defines various forms of Academic Dishonesty and procedures for
responding to them. All forms are violations of the trust between
students and teachers.
Office of the Provost
Appeals Process: Decisions by the instructor may be appealed through
the LL&C Acting Department Head and the HASS Dean and/or through
the Dean of Students Office.
Latest Update: 2012-05-01
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