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Penn State University |
Thomas W. Benson office hours: Monday and Wednesday 11-12 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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Monday January 9
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(2) Wednesday January 11 |
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. Extra discussion question for message board -- look at the Quarterly Journal of Speech for the year you were born and the year you graduated from college; briefly compare the approaches, subjects of analysis, affiliations of authors, questions asked, length, and citations of articles and reviews between the two years. |
Monday January 16
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Martin Luther King Day -- no classes Question for reflection -- how, if at all, are issues of race, equality, and diversity represented in rhetorical criticism published in QJS or other speech/rhetoric journals in the year you were born, the birth year of one of your parents, and the year you graduated from college? |
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(3) Wednesday January 18 |
Paper topic due. |
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(4) Monday January 23 |
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 January 25 |
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 January 30 |
Martin J. Medhurst, "Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' Speech: A Case Study in the Strategic Use of Language," Communication Monographs 54 (1987): 204-220 [in CMMI index]; Stephen Howard Browne, "'The Circle of Our Felicities: Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address and the Rhetoric of Nationhood," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(7) Wednesday February 1 |
Rhetorical Criticism and the Crisis of Neo-Aristotelianism. 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. Research Proposal.
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(8) Monday February 6 |
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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(9) Wednesday February 8
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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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(10) Monday February 13 |
Michael Osborn, "Archetypal Metaphor in Rhetoric: The Light-Dark Family"; Robert L. Ivie, "Metaphor and the Rhetorical Invention of Cold War 'Idealists,'" Riikka Kuusisto, "Heroic Tale, Game, and Business Deal? Western Metaphors in Action in Kosovo," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(11) Wednesday February 15 |
Edwin Black "Gettysburg and Silence" (on electronic reserve);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; Michael Hyde, "Medicine, Rhetoric, and Euthanasia: A Case Study in the Workings of a Postmodern Discourse" Quarterly Journal of Speech 79 (1993): 201-224 [CMMI index]. Context paper.
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(12) Monday February 20 |
Ideology, Dramatism , Fantasy, Myth, and Narrative as ways of rhetorical knowing. Kenneth Burke, "The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle," in Benson, Landmarks; Walter R. Fisher, "Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument," in Burgchardt, Readings; Mari Boor Tonn, Valerie A. Endress, and John N. Diamond, "Hunting and Heritage on Trial in Maine: A Dramatistic Debate over Tragedy, Tradition, and Territory"; Brian L. Ott and Erik Aoki, "The Politics of Negotiating Public Tragedy: Media Framing of the Matthew Shepherd Murder," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(13) Wednesday February 22 |
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"; Kevin Michael DeLuca and Anne Teresa Demo, "Imaging Nature: Watkins, Yosemite, and the Birth of Environmentalism"; Raymie McKerrow, "Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(14) Monday February 27 |
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; Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "The Rhetoric of Women's Liberation: An Oxymoron"; Thomas K. Nakayama and Robert L. Krizek, "Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(15) Wednesday March 1 |
Edwin Black, "The Second Persona," in Benson, Landmarks; Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois," in Benson, Landmarks; Charles E. Morris III, "Pink Herrings & the Fourth Persona: J. Edgar Hoover's Sex Crime Panic," in Burgchardt, Readings: 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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| March 6-10 |
Spring Break - not that there's anything wrong with that
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(16) Monday March 13 |
Rhetoric, cultural politics, and the public. Gerard Hauser, "Administrative Rhetoric and Public Opinion: Discussing the Iranian Hostages in the Public Sphere," in Benson, American Rhetoric; Cindy Griffin, "Rhetoricizing Alienation: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rhetorical Construction of Women's Oppression"; Peter Ehrenhaus, "Why We Fought: Holocaust Memory in Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(17) Wednesday March 15 |
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); Dana Cloud, "Hegemony or Concordance? The Rhetoric of Tokenism in 'Oprah' Winfrey's Rags-to-Riches Biography"; 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 March 20 |
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; Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, "Form and Genre in Rhetorical Criticism: An Introduction," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(19) Wednesday March 22 |
Stephen E. Lucas, "Genre Criticism and Historical Context: The Case of George Washington's First Inaugural Address," in Benson, 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," in Burgchardt, Readings; 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 March 27 |
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 March 29 |
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"; Susan Zaeske, "Signatures of Citizenship: The Rhetoric of Women's Antislavery Petitions," in Burgchardt, Readings.
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(22) Monday April 3 |
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 April 5 |
Reading speaking. Michael Leff, "Textual Criticism: The Legacy of G. P. Mohrmann," in Medhurst, Landmarks;; Michael Leff, "Dimensions of Temporality in Lincoln's Second Inaugural," in Burgchardt, Readings; Michael Leff, "Rhetorical Timing in Lincoln's House Divided Speech" (on electronic reserve).
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(24) Monday April 10 |
Presentation of seminar papers:
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Wednesday April 12
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Presentation of seminar papers: |
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(25) Monday April 17
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Presentation of seminar papers:
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(26) Wednesday April 19 |
Presentation of seminar papers:
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(27) Monday April 24
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Presentation of seminar papers:
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(28) Wednesday April 26 |
Presentation of seminar papers:
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Monday May 1 |
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):
January 18. 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.
February 1. 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.
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. In this paper (a revised
version of which will become part of your final paper), "review" the literature
to give both a brief 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. You may turn out not to have an identifiable section of the paper that stands as a separate review of the literature. Include bibliography.
February 15. 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.
March 27. 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.
March 27 - April 5. Editorial reviews of first draft. Each student will read
and respond in writing to several other student papers with suggestions for
revisions.
April 10 - April 26. Final oral reports to class.
May 1. 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.
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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 ANGEL message boards. 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.
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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; rpt. Erlbaum.
Burgchardt, Carl R., ed. Readings in Rhetorical Criticism. 3rd ed. State
College, PA: Strata, 2005.
Medhurst, Martin J., ed. Landmark Essays on American Public Address.
Davis, CA: Hermagoras Press, 1993; rpt. Erlbaum.
The New York Times.
Links |
Finding journals in rhetoric online at Penn State libraries.
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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 (1993): 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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