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Communication Arts
& Sciences 503 
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Thomas W. Benson office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11-12; Wednesday 4-5; and by appointment |
A graduate seminar in the practice of rhetorical criticism, with an emphasis on the working practices of critics of primarily oral, written, and media texts in the discipline of speech communication. Students will read widely in rhetorical criticism and interpretive theory and will write an extended seminar paper. The seminar is conceived as an intensive, advanced workshop in rhetorical criticism. |
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Wednesday September 3
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(2) Monday September 8 |
Preliminary Considerations: Theory, Scope, and Method in Rhetorical Criticism. Read Benson, "Beacons and Boundary Markers: Landmarks in Rhetorical Criticism";
Herbert A. Wichelns, "The Literary Criticism of Oratory," in Benson, Landmarks;
Medhurst, "The Academic Study of Public Address: A Tradition in Transition";
Donald C. Bryant, "Some Problems of Scope and Method in Rhetorical Scholarship."
In Medhurst, Landmarks. |
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(3) Wednesday September 10 |
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(4) Monday September15 |
Rhetoric as a Way of Doing: Rhetoric as situated, instrumental action. Read Marie Hochmuth Nichols, "Lincoln's First Inaugural" in Benson, Landmarks.
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(5) Wednesday September 17 |
Stephen E. Lucas, "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document," in Benson, American Rhetoric; Barnet Baskerville, "Must We All Be Rhetorical Critics?"; Stephen Lucas, "The Schism in Rhetorical Scholarship," in Medhurst, Landmarks
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(6) Monday September 22 |
Ernest Wrage, "Public Address: A Study in Social and Intellectual History"; Wayland Maxfield Parrish, " The Study of Speeches"; Marie Hochmuth [Nichols], "The Criticism of Rhetoric"; Edwin Black, "The Practice of Rhetorical Criticism"; G. P. Mohrmann, "Elegy in a Critical Grave-Yard," in Medhurst, Landmarks; Carroll C. Arnold, "Lord Thomas Erskine: Modern Advocate," in Benson, Landmarks
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(7) Wednesday September 24 |
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "An Exercise in the Rhetoric of Mythic America"; Forbes Hill, "Conventional Wisdom--Traditional Form--The President's Message of November 3, 1969"; Excerpts from Edwin Black, Rhetorical Criticism, in Burgchardt, Readings,; Edwin Black, "Ideological Justifications" (on electronic reserve); Benson, Thomas W. Another Shooting in Cowtown Quarterly Journal of Speech 67 (1981): 347-406 (on electronic reserve).
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(8) Monday September 29 |
Public Address as a Field of Study and as a Field of Activity. Read Thomas W. Benson, ed., Rhetoric and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, pp. 1-90.
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(9) Wednesday October 1
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(10) Monday October 6 |
Rhetoric as a way of knowing. Robert L. Scott, "A Rhetoric of Facts: Arthur Larson's Stance as a Persuader"; John Angus Cambell, "Darwin and The Origin of Species: The Rhetorical Ancestry of an Idea," in Benson, Landmarks.
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(11) Wednesday October 8 |
Edwin Black "Gettysburg and Silence" (on electronic reserve); Michael Hyde, "Medicine, Rhetoric, and Euthanasia: A Case Study in the Workings of a Postmodern Discourse"; Michael Calvin McGee, "'The Ideograph: A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology"; John Louis Lucaites and Celeste Michelle Condit, Reconstructing Equality: Culturetypal and Counter-Cultural Rhetorics in the Martyred Black Vision," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(12) Monday October 13 |
Ideology, Dramatism , Fantasy, Myth, and Narrative as ways of rhetorical knowing. Kenneth Burke, "The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle," in Benson, Landmarks.
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(13) Wednesday October 15 |
Janice Hocker Rushing, "Evolution of the 'New Frontier' in Alien and Aliens: Patriarchal Evolution of the Feminine Archetype" (on electronic reserve); Philip Wander, "The Ideological Turn in Modern Criticism"; Raymie McKerrow, "Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(14) Monday October 20 |
Rhetoric as a way of being. Read T. Benson, "Rhetoric as a Way of Being," in American Rhetoric; Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "Stanton's "Solitude of Self": A Rationale for Feminism," in Benson, Landmarks; Sonja Foss and Karen A. Foss, "The Construction of Feminine Spectatorship in Garrison Keillor's Radio Monologues," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(15) Wednesday October 22 |
Edwin Black, "The Second Persona," in Benson, Landmarks; Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois," in Benson, Landmarks; James Darsey, "The Legend of Eugene Debs: Prophetic Ethos as Radical Argument" (on electronic reserve); Thomas W. Benson, "Rhetoric and Autobiography: The Case of Malcolm X" (electronic reserve); Kenneth Burke, "Antony on Behalf of the Play" (electronic reserve).
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(16) Monday October 27 |
Rhetoric, cultural politics, and the public. Gerard Hauser, "Administrative Rhetoric and Public Opinion: Discussing the Iranian Hostages in the Public Sphere"; Richard B. Gregg, "The Rhetoric of Denial and Alternity," in Benson, American Rhetoric; Cindy Griffin, "Rhetoricizing Alienation: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rhetorical Construction of Women's Oppression," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(17) Wednesday October 29 |
Michael Calvin McGee, "In Search of 'The People': A Rhetorical Alternative" (on electronic reserve); Michael Calvin McGee, "Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture" (on electronic reserve); Michael Leff, "Interpretation and the Art of the Rhetorical Critic" (on electronic reserve); Michael Leff, "Rhetorical Timing in Lincoln's House Divided Speech" (on electronic reserve); Karen Altman, "Consuming Ideology: The Better Homes in America Campaign" (electronic reserve); Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(18) Monday November 3 |
Genre, the constraints of form, and the rhetorical resources of language. Lawrence W. Rosenfield, "Central Park and the Celebration of Civic Virtue," in Benson, American Rhetoric; Hermann G. Stelzner, "'War Message,' December 8, 1941: An Approach to Language"; Michael C. Leff and G. P. Mohrmann, "Lincoln at Cooper Union: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Text," in Benson, Landmarks.
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(19) Wednesday November 5 |
Stephen E. Lucas, "Genre Criticism and Historical Context: The Case of George Washington's First Inaugural Address," in Benson, Landmarks; Michael Leff, "Textual Criticism: The Legacy of G. P. Mohrmann," in Medhurst, Landmarks; Martin J. Medhurst and Thomas W. Benson, "The City: The Rhetoric of Rhythm" (on electronic reserve); B. L. Ware and Wil A. Linkugel, "They Spoke in Defense of Themselves: On the Generic Criticism of Apologia" (on electronic reserve); Richard Fulkerson, "The Public Letter as a Rhetorical Form: Structure, Logic, and Style in King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'" (electronic reserve); Martin J. Medhurst, "The Politics of Prayer: A Case Study in Configurational Interplay," in Benson, American Rhetoric.
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(20) Monday November 10 |
First draft of seminar paper due. No reading assignment for this class period--to give you a little extra time to work on your paper--but please do not miss class, as we will be exchanging drafts for peer review.
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(21) Wednesday November 12 |
Interpreting the rhetoric of movements. Read Carroll C. Arnold, "Early Constitutional Rhetoric in Pennsylvania," in Benson, American Rhetoric; Leland Griffin, "The Rhetorical Structure of Historical Movements" (on electronic reserve); Leland Griffin, "The Rhetorical Structure of the Antimasonic Movement"; Herbert Simons, "Requirements, Problems, and Strategies: A Theory of Persuasion for Social Movements," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(22) Monday November 17 |
The issue of theory in criticism; the criticism of politics; and the politics of academic gatekeeping. James Darsey, "Must We All Be Rhetorical Theorists? An Anti-Democratic Inquiry" (on electronic reserve); Carole Blair, Julie R. Brown, and Leslie A. Baxter, "Disciplining the Feminine" (on electronic reserve); Roderick Hart, "Contemporary Scholarship in Public Address: A Research Editorial"; "Doing Criticism My Way: A Reply to Darsey"; "Theory-Building and Rhetorical Criticism: An Informal Statement of Opinion" (on electronic reserve).
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(23) Wednesday November 19 |
Reading speaking. Michael Leff, "Textual Criticism: The Legacy of G. P. Mohrmann"; Michael Leff, "Dimensions of Temporality in Lincoln's Second Inaugural"; Martin J. Medhurst, "Reconceptualizing Rhetorical History: Eisenhower's Farewell Address," in Burgchardt, Readings; Michael Leff, "Rhetorical Timing in Lincoln's House Divided Speech" (on electronic reserve).
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(24) Monday November 24 |
Presentation of seminar papers
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Wednesday November 26
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Thanksgiving Break - no classes. |
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(25) Monday December 1
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Presentation of seminar papers:
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(26) Wednesday December 3 |
Presentation of seminar papers:
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(27) Monday December 8
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Presentation of seminar papers:
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(28) Wednesday December 10 |
Presentation of seminar papers:
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Monday December 15 |
Final Exams begin. Term paper due. Department mailboxes are in 232 Sparks Building.
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Seminar Papers |
Seminar Papers: You are asked to prepare a major,
article-length seminar paper--a rhetorical analysis of a single text
or group of texts. Subject the text to a close textual analysis,
situated in whatever contexts (theoretical, situational, historical)
seem appropriate to support interpretive work. A central feature of
the seminar will be the sequential preparation of the paper, followed
by shared editorial consultation and thorough rewriting. The product
will, it is hoped, be a manuscript that might be thought of as an
"expanded" journal article, which, with some judicious cutting, could
be submitted for publication review to a journal. The manuscript will
be "expanded" in the sense that it will probably contain a more
extended review of context and earlier scholarship, and perhaps more
detailed description, than some editors would have space for in a
journal.
Major dates for paper development (all these assignments are due,
typed, double-spaced, one side of paper only, with a title page, on
the dates indicated):
September 17. Topic due, in writing. Briefly identify the text(s) you
wish to analyze and the central critical problems or questions you wish to investigate.
What is the text? Where is it available? What, at this point, strike you as
issues, questions, or problems worth investigating? (1-2 pages) It is strongly
suggested that you talk with me before choosing a text for analysis. In any
case, do not choose a text that you have written on for another class.
September 29. Research proposal. (2-4 pp.) A description of the topic
you have chosen, the central question you will address in your analysis, the
significance of your study, critical procedures that seem likely to be productive,
relevant theoretical and methodological considerations, definitions of key terms,
brief identification of the scholarly literatures most likely to contextualize
your study (previous studies of your text, of similar texts, of similar questions,
theoretical perspectives, descriptions of method or uses of methods similar
to those you propose). Preliminary bibliography.
October 13. Review of literature. By this time you should have identified
the scholarly literature (books, journal articles, and dissertations) bearing
on (1) your research question, (2) the text you have chosen to analyze, (3)
your mode of analysis, and (4) major theoretical issues, if any, that drive
or are interrogated by your proposed analysis. Early in the semester, schedule
a session with a research librarian at Pattee Library for advice on searching
the literature bearing on your topic. You should be familiar with LIAS , with
Dissertation Abstracts, and with various indices to scholarly literature
that are available on CD-ROM. Be sure to consult standard bibliographies in
the field, especially R. Matlon, Index to Journals in Communication Studies
through 1990; for journals in speech communication since 1990, you may need
to leaf through by hand; note that the Matlon Index is also available on CD-ROM
as "Commsearch"--a copy is available in Pattee Library. In this paper (a revised
version of which will become part of your final paper), "review" the literature
so as to give both an overview of the literature and a focused account of how
it bears on your own project. A careful review at this point will allow you
to identify, in the final paper, the ways in which your own findings confirm,
extend, modify, or contradict the existing literature, but it is not anticipated
that this short paper will simply be dropped unmodified into the final draft.
October 22. Context--political, historical, organizational, ideological;
production and reception. History and authenticity of the text. Just 2-3 pages
for this assignment, though you will by this time have gathered much more than
enough information than that, and may write at length on this subject in your
actual paper.
November 10. First draft of paper due. A complete and finished version
of the paper, suitable for formal review. Include title page, abstract, paper,
endnotes if any, and list of works cited.
November 12-24. Editorial reviews of first draft. Each student will read
and respond in writing to several other student papers with suggestions for
revisions.
November 24 - December 10. Final oral reports to class.
December 10. Seminar paper due.
Paper Style. In preparing your paper, follow the style guidelines presented
in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th edition; or Chicago
Manual of Style A form; or APA style. If you use MLA style, you may use
the citation method that employs a list of works cited and parenthetical references
in the text, or an endnote style (in which case you should also include a bibliography).
If you use commentative notes in addition, use endnotes rather than footnotes.
It is a good idea for a writer to have a basic grammar reference handy; one
widely used guide that I recommend is Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference,
3rd ed. (New York: St. Martin's, 1995).
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On-line participation |
Electronic Mail and Class Discussion. The primary discussions in this
seminar will be conducted face-to-face, on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and
throughout the rest of the week on the computer. Although it is hoped that participation
will be intense and ongoing, at least the following deadlines must be met: A
contribution to discussion 24 hours before each class meeting, in which you
offer some questions about the reading assignment for the next class (with supporting
citations, thoughts, or suggestions) for possible discussion in class or on-line.
You are also invited to participate in ongoing followup on-line conversations
that extend some aspect of class discussion or raise an issue that did not make
it into the discussion. In your contributions, please try to frame a proposition
or question for discussion, relate it to some part of the readings, quote or
paraphrase the relevant passage in the reading (including a page reference),
and sketch a reasoned discussion-opener. In these conversations, your opinions
are important, but we should also work beyond mere clash (or coincidence) of
opinion to mutual enlightenment and a shared willingness to learn new ways of
thinking. Send your notes for class discussion to the Listserv address L-CAS503-fa03@lists.psu.edu.
If you use more than one e-mail account, I can list more than one address for
you.
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Academic Integrity |
Academic Integrity. Submission of all written work in this
course is taken to imply that the work is your own unless otherwise
indicated. Please be careful to document the work of others where
appropriate. Under no circumstances submit for credit in this course
any work that has been submitted in other courses. In selecting a
text for critical analysis for your seminar paper, do not write about
a text that is part of the syllabus of other courses you have taken
without special permission.
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Grades |
Grades. All elements of your work in this seminar will be
considered in formulating a final grade for the course--participation
(in class and on-line) 20%; written work (including first and final
drafts of the seminar paper, progressive development of various
stages of the paper, and editorial comments on peer reviewed papers)
80%.
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Texts |
Benson, Thomas W., ed. American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1989. [I will provide loan copies]
Benson, Thomas W., ed. Landmark Essays on Rhetorical Criticism. Davis,
CA: Hermagoras Press, 1993.
Benson, Thomas W., ed. Rhetoric and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century
America. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997.
Burgchardt, Carl R., ed. Readings in Rhetorical Criticism. 2d ed. State
College, PA: Strata, 2000.
Medhurst, Martin J., ed. Landmark Essays on American Public Address.
Davis, CA: Hermagoras Press, 1993.
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Electronic Reserves |
A selection of readings in rhetorical criticism is available to registered
students through the Penn State libraries electronic reserve system. The following
works are on electronic reserve. You may link to the electronic reserves by
clicking the "course reserves" link at Pattee Library. Go to the library
web page, then click to log into the cat; from there you you find a button for
course reserves
Altman, Karen E. Consuming Ideology: The Better Homes in American Campaign Critical
Studies in Mass Communication 7 (1990): 286-307.
Benson, Thomas W. Another Shooting in Cowtown Quarterly Journal of Speech 67
(1981): 347-406.
Benson, Thomas W. Rhetoric and Autobiography: The Case of Malcolm X Quarterly
Journal of Speech 60 (1974): 1-13.
Black, Edwin. Gettysburg and Silence. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 80, (1994):
21-36.
Black, Edwin. Ideological Justifications. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70, (1984):
144-150.
Black, Edwin. Secrecy and Disclosure as Rhetorical Forms. Quarterly Journal
of Speech, 74 (1988): 133-150.
Black, Edwin. The Sentimental Style as Escapism, or the Devil with Dan'l Webster.
Form and Genre: Shaping Rhetorical Action. Ed. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen
Hall Jamieson. Falls Church, VA: Speech Communication Association, (1978). 75-86.
Blair, Carol, Julie R. Brown, and Leslie A. Baxter. Disciplining the Feminine.
Quarterly Journal of Speech 80 (1994): 383-409.
Browne, Stephen H. Reading Public Memory in Daniel Webster's Plymouth Rock Oration.
Western Journal of Communication, 57, 464-477.
Burke, Kenneth. Antony on Behalf of the Play. The Philosophy of Literary Form.
3d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. 329-343.
Darsey, James. The Legend of Eugene Debs: Prophetic Ethos as Radical Argument
Quarterly Journal of Speech 74 (1988): 434-452.
Darsey, James. Must We All Be Rhetorical Theorists?: An Anti- Democratic inquiry.
Western Journal of Communication 58 (1994): 164-181.
Fulkerson, Richard P. The Public Letter as a Rhetorical Form: Structure, Style,
and Logic in Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail.. Quarterly Journal of Speech
65 (1979): 121-136.
Gregg, Richard B. The Criticism of Symbolic Inducement: A Critical-Theoretical
Connection. Speech Communication in the 20th Century. Ed. Thomas W. Benson.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985. 41-62.
Gregg, Richard B. The Ego-Function of the Rhetoric of Protest. Philosophy and
Rhetoric 4 (1971): 71-91.
Griffin, Leland M. The Rhetorical Structure of Historical Movements. Quarterly
Journal of Speech 38 (1952): 184-188.
Griffin, Leland M. The Rhetorical Structure of the Antimasonic Movement. The
Rhetorical Idiom. Ed. Donald C. Bryant. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1958. 145-160.
Hart, Roderick P. Contemporary Scholarship in Public Address: A Research Editorial.
Western Journal of Speech Communication 50 (1986): 283-295.
Hart, Roderick P. Doing Criticism My Way: A Reply to Darsey. Western Journal
of Communication 58 (1994): 308-312.
Hart, Roderick P. Theory-Building and Rhetorical Criticism: An Informal Statement
of Opinion. Central States Speech Journal 27 (1976): 70-77.
Hyde, Michael J. Medicine, Rhetoric, and Euthanasia: A Case Study in the Workings
of a Postmodern Discourse. Quarterly Journal of Speech 79 (1993): 201-224.
Leff, Michael. Interpretation and the Art of the Rhetorical Critic. Western
Journal of Speech Communication 44 (1980): 337-349.
Leff, Michael. Rhetorical Timing in Lincoln's House Divided Speech. Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University, 1984. pp.3-20. Published by Northwestern University's
Department of Speech Communication.
Leff, Michael and Sachs, Andrew. Words the Most Like Things: Iconicity and the
Rhetorical Text. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 54, 252-273.
Lucaites, John Louis, and Celeste Michelle Condit. Reconstructing : Culturetypal
and Counter-Cultural Rhetorics in the Martyred Black Vision. Communication Monographs
57 (1990): 5-25.
McGee, Michael Calvin. The 'Ideograph': A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology.
Quarterly Journal of Speech 66 (1980): 1-16.
McGee, Michael C. In Search of 'The People': A Rhetorical Alternative. Quarterly
Journal of Speech, 61 (1975): 235-49.
McGee, Michael Calvin. Social movement as meaning. Central States Speech Journal,
34 (1983): 74-77.
McGee, Michael Calvin. Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary
Culture. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 54 (1990): 274-289.
McKerrow, Raymie E. Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis. Communication Monographs
56 (1989): 91-111.
Medhurst, Martin J., and Thomas W. Benson. The City": The Rhetoric of Rhythm.
Communication Monographs 48 (1981): 54-72.
Rosenfield, Lawrence W. The Anatomy of Critical Discourse.Speech Monographs
35 (1968): 50-69.
Rosenfield, Lawrence W. The Experience of Criticism. Quarterly Journal of Speech,
60 (1974): 489-496.
Rushing, Janice Hocker. Evolution of 'The New Frontier' in Alien and Aliens:
Patriarchal Co-optation of the Feminine Archetype. Quarterly Journal of Speech
75 (1989): 1-24.
Simons, Herbert W. Requirements, Problems, and Strategies: A Theory of Persuasion
for Social Movements. Quarterly Journal of Speech 56 (1970): 1-11.
Wander, Philip. The Ideological Turn in Modern Criticism. Central States Speech
Journal 34 (1983): 1-18.
Ware, B. L., and Wil A. Linkugel. They Spoke in Defense of Themselves: On the
Generic Criticism of Apologia. Quarterly Journal of Speech 59 (1973): 273-283.
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Additional Readings |
This syllabus may be accessed on the world wide web at http://www.personal.psu.edu/t3b
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