.
POSTSCRIPT: 23 January (Monday)
PREVIEW: 25 January (Wednesday)
--From Orality to Literacy . . . to Secondary Orality.  Though rhetorical studies may have begun in Greece in the fifth century B.C., the practice of rhetoric began much earlier with the emergence of homo sapiens, the first creatures who--through their creation of language--were capable of understanding.  (See Postscript to class on Jan. 9: DEFINITIONS.)  Rhetoric became a subject of academic study at a time when Ancient Greece was experiencing the change from an oral culture to a literate one, as we'll soon see in Plato's Phaedrus, where the character of Socrates identifies some of the pernicious effects of the new-fangled technology of writing.   In our own era, according to many theorists, we are experiencing a comparable transformation in human cognition and communication:   
"We are in a period of history and technology where much of the world's population, perhaps a majority, are still in the pre-literate oral communication era, while the west, and particularly the US and Canada, are in the post-literate information age [sometimes called "a secondary orality"]. In the post-literate world, learners have a base of literacy, but their primary means of learning have shifted back to oral and aural media (if in fact they were ever fully indoctrinated into literate forms of learning), but the media are new.
"The current western generation learns and processes in terms of media such as television (drama, news, music, interactive graphics or text), radio (music, news, discussion), telephone (often in conjunction with TV or radio), computer (which involves basic literacy, but more visuals, graphics and click-skills), visual and aural media, often multiplexed, as all the media merge. In this post-literate society, writing and reading are still of value, but only as they facilitate manipulation for the other media." (Dr. Orville Boyd-Jenkins, "Orality and the Post-Literate West" 2006).
So, even as we begin our study of the origins of classical rhetoric (e.g., in Wednesday's class, we'll look at a few excerpts from Plato's Gorgias), we'll also be applying some of these ancient principles to contemporary forms of communication (such as advertising).   At the end of the semester, we'll come full circle and consider how the field of rhetoric has continued to evolve in our own times.
--Three Branches of Rhetoric: Judicial (aka "forensic"--to accuse or defend), Legislative (aka "deliberative"--to exhort or dissuade), and Epideictic (aka "ceremonial"--to commemorate or blame . . . and just about every other form of communication not embraced by the first two branches). 
--Rhetorical Situations in Everyday Life.  I've posted a few of your reports to illustrate a variety of principles.
--VISUAL RHETORICS.  (See preview below, which includes links to the political commercials viewed today in class.) 

PREVIEW: 23 January (Monday)
--CHAPTER TWO of The History & Theory of Rhetoric.   This week, after revisiting a few of the key points introduced in Chapter One, we'll begin our survey of the history of rhetoric.  First, a cautionary note: recent scholarship (for example, Edward Schiappa's The Beginnings of Rhetorical Theory in Classical Greece, 1999) has challenged (or at least attempted to qualify) conventional views that western rhetoric was born with the democratization of Syracuse, developed by the Sophists in a somewhat shallow way, criticized by Plato in a somewhat impractical way, and rescued by Aristotle, whose Rhetoric found the mean between Sophistic relativism and Platonic idealism.  The Sophists were, in fact, a rather disparate group of teachers, some of whom may have been opportunistic hucksters and some of whom may have been closer in spirit and method to Aristotle and other philosophers.  In any case, the development of rhetoric in 5th-century B.C. certainly corresponded to the rise of the new legal system that accompanied the "democratic government" (i.e., the several hundred men who were defined as Athenian citizens) in parts of ancient Greece.  (Keep in mind that before the invention of lawyers, citizens represented themselves in the Assembly--usually in front of sizeable juries.)   It is believed that the Sophists generally taught by example rather than precept; that is, they prepared and delivered specimen speeches for their students to imitate.  In any case, it's difficult to identify anything like a common set of Sophistic rhetorical principles.   We do know a couple of things for certain: (1) that in the 4th century B.C. Aristotle assembled the rhetorical handbooks that were then available into a collection called the Synagoge Techne (now, unfortunately, lost); and (2) that his Rhetoric (which is, in fact, a collection of lecture notes) is the earliest extant example of a complete theory, or art, of rhetoric. 

Concepts introduced in Chapter Two.  Make sure that you understand the concepts and/or methods of arete* (p. 36), dialectic (36-37), kairos (37), encomium (42), allegory (42), chiasmus (43), and antithesis (43).
*  ARETE is traditionally translated as "virtue," but it has in Greek both a broader and a more specific meaning.  Things as well as people have their own special ARETE. The ARETE of a chimney, for example, consists in the reliability of its draw in various climatological conditions and in the efficiency of its shape, which reflects heat into the room and conducts smoke through the roof.  ARETE is excellence within a kind.  (James Evans, Webster University).

Characters introduced in Chapter Two.  In addition to becoming familiar with the Sophists in general (who they were, what they taught, and why they were controversial), make sure that you're able to identify and distinguish between Gorgias and Isocrates.  On Wednesday of this week we'll begin looking at Plato's fictionalized version of Gorgias in the dialogue named after him.  
Questions for Review (Chapter Two, p. 49): be prepared to respond to questions number 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10.
Questions for Discussion (Chapter Two, p. 50): consider, in particular, questions number 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.
--WOMEN IN CLASSICAL RHETORIC.  Though our text focuses primarily on the "father figures" of classical rhetoric, women (though generally excluded from educational opportunities and political offices) also contributed to the rhetorical tradition in ancient Greece and Rome.  Women such as Aspasia and Theodote have sometimes been described as "the muted rhetoricians"; unfortunately, because they left no texts, we know few details about their contributions.  Two books that provide good starting points on this subject are Women in the Classical World: Image and Text (1995) and Jan Swearingen's Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies (1991).  See me if you'd care to borrow either volume.
--VISUAL RHETORICS.  We'll begin practicing a very basic form of rhetorical analysis this week as we examine some print advertisements.  In our postmodern era, where increasingly language is subordinated to images, we need to adapt rhetorical studies accordingly.  Consider, for instance, how the visual metaphors in these three ads (for Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter, for the Chevy Blazer, and for Depend Guards) dominate the page, almost obscuring the text.  In class, we'll consider the power of the NIKE logo (scroll down to "Just Do It!" on the VISUAL RHETORICS page) and the evolving nature of political advertising from Ike's 1952 campaign to Lyndon Johnson's notorious "daisy commercial" in 1964.  (If these links don't take you directly to the clips, go to the home page of The Living Room Candidate, click on "election year 1952" (and then 1964), and finally click on the appropriate thumbnail.  Of course, you must have a multimedia player such as the RealPlayer or Windows Media.) 

--AUDIO BONUS (purely optional--but highly recommended).   "Rhetoric": Originally broadcast on Oct. 28, 2004, this 45-minute BBC Radio program provides a cogent panel discussion on the history of rhetoric, from its origins in   ancient Greece to the present.  "Gorgias, the great sophist philosopher and master of rhetoric said, 'Speech is a powerful lord that with the smallest and most invisible body accomplished most godlike works. It can banish fear and remove grief, and instill pleasure and enhance pity. Divine sweetness transmitted through words is inductive of pleasure and reductive of pain.'  But for Plato it was a vice, and those like Gorgias who taught rhetoric were teaching the skills of lying in return for money and were a great danger.   He warned 'this device - be it which it may, art or mere artless empirical knack - must not, if we can help it, strike root in our society.'  But strike root it did, and there is a rich tradition of philosophers and theologians who have attempted to make sense of it.  How did the art of rhetoric develop?  What part has it played in philosophy and literature?  And does it still deserve the health warning applied so unambiguously by Plato?"  To listen to this excellent program (which provides a perfect outline to our historical study of rhetoric), visit the BBC Radio 4 "History in Our Time" page and click on "Listen again" (the lecture begins immediately after the weather report).

POSTSCRIPT: 18 January (Wednesday)
--ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS.  We revisited Aristotle's concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos (as well as distinctions that have been drawn between invented and situated ethos) and looked at how these artful strategies were employed by Gary Hart in the 1987 speech in which he announced his withdrawal from the race for the Democratic nomination for president.  Consider how some of these same strategies are also employed in a "personal" letter generated by Publishers Clearing House.  (Friendly tip: If you can't yet define these terms accurately, you're already two weeks  behind in the course.  Take notes.   Ask questions.  Use the resources on this web site.  And spend a little time every day learning the terms: you'll need to know them all by midterm.) 
--RHETORIC OF THE WORD.  By now you should be familiar with the terms denotation and connotation (more complex discussion here), euphemism (and while we're at it, dysphemism: a nastier way of expressing something; a word used as a weapon against others, or as a release valve for anxiety and frustration), etymology, and (most importantly) metaphor.  
--SPREZZATURA.  Our word of the day. 
--"Do not go gentle into that good night" (): In addition to examining a few of the rhetorical structures and sound devices (e.g., alliteration, assonance, rhyme, metaphor, simile, pun, oxymoron--along with personification, dehortatio, apostrophe, polyptoton, antithesis, et al.) within  Dylan Thomas's villanelle, we briefly considered the effects of the rhetorical structure of  the poem.   As we saw, a useful way of initiating a rhetorical analysis is to consider alternatives: what if the writer had used this word (or phrase or structure) instead of the word (or phrase or structure) he or she did use? 
--TIP FOR CONDUCTING A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS.  Keep in mind the two related steps involved in a rhetorical analysis: "show me" (i.e.,  point out the rhetorical device: "Dark is a metaphor") and "So what?" (i.e., so what effect and/or meaning is created by this device?   e.g., " . . . a conventional metaphor for death that parallels the metaphorical 'night' in the poem's title").
--VISUAL METAPHORS.  We considered how a poem by e. e. cummings contains both textual and visual metaphors.  Examine the visual metaphors in these three print advertisements.  

PREVIEW: 18 January (Wednesday)
--CHAPTER ONE of The History & Theory of Rhetoric.   Next week we'll begin surveying the history of rhetoric (beginning with Plato's objections in Gorgias), but for now we'll carry on with our efforts to define the subject, consider its value, and examine some of its applications.  As you read Chapter One, pay particular attention to the following:
-McKeon's characterization of rhetoric as "a universal and architectonic art" (p. 2) and Herrick's observation that "human beings are rhetorical beings" (pp. 5 and 6);
-the universality of persuasion in human activities--and why rhetoric may be distrusted (pp. 3-5);
-Herrick's definition of the art of rhetoric as "the systematic study and the artful practice of effective symbolic expression" (p. 7);
-the six distinguishing qualities of rhetorical discourse (pp. 7-16), including the four "resources of symbols" that support persuasion (pp. 12-15): Herrick promises to describe five qualities and then proceeds to give us six ("concerned with contingent issues" was added--perhaps hastily--in the third edition);
-the six social functions of rhetoric (pp. 16-23);
-five central rhetorical issues (pp. 24-25);
-Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address" and Emily Dickinson's "Success Is Counted Sweetest" as rhetorical texts.
A few notes on terms in Chapter One (p. 28).  Though most of the terms introduced in this chapter (including the word rhetoric itself) will be examined in more detail throughout the course, it's not too soon to begin learning the lingo.  For example, on page 8, Herrick identifies three of the five classical "offices or canons" of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery (learn the terms in English, but be able to recognize their Latin equivalents--we'll see them again).   This past week in class we learned the basic definitions of ethos, pathos, and logos; on page nine of Chapter One, Herrick introduces the Aristotelian term enthymeme (amplified on pages 78-79), the dominant method or characteristic of rhetorical logic.  Later on that same page Herrick mentions a more modern rhetorical term, Kenneth Burke's identification--which is related to the classical concept of ethopoeia.  Some terms (such as audience, rhetorical situation, argument, and arrangement) may seem fairly obvious (or at least easier to remember than the Greek and Latin terms), but some complex issues lie behind them.
--EXERCISE: Rhetoric in Everyday Life (see ASSIGNMENTS for January 18).  Short exercises such as this one aren't meant to take a long time to complete (and I won't be assigning letter grades, just marks of satisfactory or  unsatisfactory--with an occasional "extraordinary").  Their primary purpose is to provide opportunities for you to apply theories introduced in our text--and (soon) to help you learn the terms, which are the tools of rhetorical analysis.  I'll collect your (word-processed) exercises at the end of today's class.
--WEDNESDAY'S CLASS: After a quick review of the classical notions of ethos (both invented and situated), pathos, and logos (see also the links to enthymemes on our web site), we'll listen to a speech delivered on May 8, 1987 by presidential contender Gary Hart.  In the speech, delivered a week after photos of Hart and model Donna Rice (aboard a sailboat named Monkey Business) were published, Hart gives his reasons for dropping out of the race.   Following the speech, we'll analyze the kinds of ethical, pathetic, and logical appeals employed by Senator Hart. 

POSTSCRIPT: 11 January (Wednesday)
--SYLLABUS & WEB SITE QUIZ.  Once again, the quiz answers are: (1) B (home page); (2) D (ASSIGNMENTS); (3) E (SYLLABUS); (4) C (chiasmus); (5) A (epiphora); (6) C (metaphor); (7) C (anaphora); (8) C (rhetoric); (9) C (rhetoric);  (10) B (ethos, pathos, and logos).  If you participated actively in our first class and completed the simple assignments that were due today, you should have missed no more than one question.  The purpose of this simple quiz (besides illustrating verbal irony) was to emphasize the importance of reading and heeding the SYLLABUS; to point out the value of this web site as a study tool; to underscore the need to stay on top of assignments (keeping up is much easier than catching up); and to outline some of my pet professorial peeves: (1) ignoring information and resources on the course web site (check NEWS often--and then follow the links); (2) arriving late to class; (3) whining (especially when it involves references to bodily functions); (4) academic codependency; and (5) cell phones--not necessarily in that order.  Btw, a few more of my pet peeves include (6) vague pronoun reference ("What is this?"); (7) an inability to punctuate quotations (American style); (8) irony deficiencies, and (9) top ten lists.
--TODAY'S TIP ON LEARNING THE TERMS.  When a term is introduced in class (or in these NOTES or in our course text), make a point of trying to learn the term (and the concept behind it).  Be patient: your initial understanding may be fuzzy, but with additional practice, examples, and discussion, the significance of the term should grow clear.
--RHETORIC OF PLACE: THE SUPERMARKET.  As a way of defining rhetoric in the context of everyday life, we (imaginatively) toured a supermarket in order to analyze some of the particular ways such a store can be viewed as a rhetorical structure or machine--i.e., as a complex system of strategies designed to persuade "consumers" (in earlier times known as "citizens") to linger and to buy stuff--in particular, stuff that they don't necessarily want or need.   Among the "rhetorical devices" identified were various sensory appeals (e.g., piped-in music, bakery odors, frequently spritzed fruits and vegetables); spatial arrangements (hiding staples such as milk and bread in the rear of the store, locating more-profitable brands at eye-level, stocking the checkout with potential "impulse buys"); and sales techniques (two-for-one items, "loyalty" cards, "special" mark-downs).  What we didn't have time to talk about are the ways that the food industry itself manipulates shoppers through the sophisticated processing and packaging of food.  That fresh, shiny Washington State apple, for instance, has been dipped in fungicide, bathed in chlorine, scrubbed with detergent, and polished with wait before ever making it to the produce section.  In viewing a supermarket as a rhetorical machine designed to manipulate us into buying what we don't necessarily need, we're practicing--among other things--an elementary form of proxemics--the study of spatial arrangements and the ways human behavior is affected by such arrangements.  If this were a business course, we might simply call it "marketing."   For more information about proxemics, please check out this concise outline by Professor Mike Shepperd. 
--RHETORIC OF THE WORD.  By now you should be familiar with the terms denotation and connotation (more complex discussion here), euphemism (and while we're at it, dysphemism: a nastier way of expressing something; a word used as a weapon against others, or as a release valve for anxiety and frustration), etymology, and (most importantly) metaphor.   For examples of the rhetoric of individual words (and of word clusters), check out the following (purely optional): -"What Those Code Words in Personal Ads Really Mean."
As we heard in Carlin's routine on airline announcements (excerpts here), identifying rhetorical purpose is also one of our concerns in this course.  At times defining purpose is fairly simple: the white pages of a phone book are primarily intended to inform; the yellow pages are designed to persuade as well.  Carlin's routine itself is meant to amuse--and perhaps to criticize, startle and offend as well.  Things get complicated when the purpose on the surface (e.g., to sell  ourselves in a job interview) conflict with darker motives (e.g., to impress others).  Our word of the day: malapropism (see also "Idiom Blending").
--EUPHEMISMS FOR "KILLER WORDS & PHRASES."  Please read this handout over the long weekend, keeping in mind that politicians of all stripes engage in what Frank Luntz calls "the creative use of language."  (Purely optional, but worth the visit: a PBS Frontline interview with Luntz (Nov. 2004).     

POSTSCRIPT: 9 January (Monday)
PREVIEW: 11 January (Wednesday)
-- THEORY AND PRACTICE.  Don't hesitate to get a head start on Chapter One of The History & Theory of Rhetoric.   While this text will provide us with the theoretical and historical sides of rhetoric, our class work (along with some out-of-class work)  will provide opportunities to put theory into practice.  
-- DEFINITIONS.  After exchanging introductions at our first class meeting today, we danced around some simple  definitions of rhetoric (check out this collection of definitions at Dr. Eskin's course site).  Consider the implications of rhetoric's origins in oral cultures (no writing, no books, not even instant messaging) and the importance of memory in those cultures.  In Chapter Three of Orality and Literacy (1982), Walter J. Ong lists some characteristics of the way people in a "primary oral culture" think and express themselves through narrative:
1. Expression is additive (i.e, " . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .") rather than subordinate.  
2. It is aggregative (e.g., a reliance on epithets and on parallel and antithetical phrases) rather than analytic.
3. It tends to be redundant or "copious."
4. Out of necessity, thought is conceptualized and then expressed with relatively close reference to the human world.
6. Expression is agonistically toned.
7. It is empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced.
8. It is situational rather than abstract. 
Put simply, many of the stylistic traits that we'll be examining in this course once had a very practical value: they helped people remember things.
-- ACCUMULATION.   To illustrate the point that rhetoric is an inherent part of our everyday lives, consider how accumulation, the first term in our glossary, tends to occur in a rhetorical situation in which one person passes judgment on another by cataloging his or her failures or achievements (the former is a type of invective; the latter an  example of encomium).  
-- PROVERBS.  In predominantly oral cultures, proverbs (also known as maxims) are convenient vehicles for conveying simple beliefs and cultural attitudes.
-- METAPHOR.  Of all the rhetorical and stylistic devices that we'll be studying this term, the most prevalent is metaphor (sometimes referred to as "the primary trope").    In Monday's class, we considered how objects from everyday life (a "crisp and tangy" apple, a bottle of Viking Blod) carry metaphorical meanings.  Btw, it was Daniel Boorstin in a book published over 40 years ago, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, who first proposed that the cardboard box has proved to be the most influential American invention of the past two centuries.   The packaging of products in the 19th century (which made possible branding and advertising) led inexorably to the packaging of people and events in our own time.  (Purely optional, but worth the visit: an excerpt from Boorstin's The Image.) 
-- ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS.  The simple transaction of borrowing a dollar served to illustrate three fundamental rhetorical concepts: ethos, pathos, and logos.  (We'll have a lot more to say about these "means of persuasion" in the weeks ahead.) 
-- MEMORABLE RHETORIC.  Today we heard excerpts from speeches by Winston Churchill [par. 12], John Kennedy [paragraphs 24-27], and Martin Luther King, Jr. [last four paragraphs].  In the excerpt from the film version of Grapes of Wrath [passage 11], we saw (and heard) that rhetoric doesn't necessarily mean "fancy talk."  (Purely optional, check out the lyrics to "The Ghost of Tom Joad," by Bruce Springsteen.)
-- MORE NEW TERMS.  Four other terms introduced on Monday afternoon: anaphora and epiphora; antithesis and chiasmus.  
-- COMING SOON.  On Wednesday, as a way of demonstrating the prevalence of rhetoric in everyday life, we'll listen to an excerpt from a George Carlin routine (excerpts here) and analyze a few TV commercials.
-- TIP.  Make sure that you've read the course SYLLABUS by Wednesday--and don't forget to send me an e-mail.  

English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist
Office of Liberal Studies (Solms 211)
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912/921 5991

e-mail: engl5730@lycos.com      
                                      

UPDATED
26 January 2006