Explanation of R/C NIETZSCHE PROJECT
June 3, Hello-Day ...
...(situating Nietzsche in dis/respect to
- Traditional Notions of Rhetoric,
- Traditional Composition Theory and Pedagogy, and
- what Ricoeur labels the "Hermeneuts of Suspicion" [Marx, Freud, Nietzsche]);
and listing Nietzsche in respect to his parathemes, e.g.,
- problems of the ethical Subject, agent, individual (self-overcoming, the middle voice);
- attitude toward women/feminism, toward Germany, toward Christianity, toward Jews and (St.) Paul;
- cause/effect, metalepsis;
- "laws" of identity, non-contradiction, excluded middle;
- pathos of distance (& nobility) and consensus;
- sentences, aphorisms;
- style;
- Ubermensch (wrongly translated as 'superman');
- narrative (metonymy, contingency);
- the Negative (binaries and hierarchies);
- Dionysian, Apollonian;
- tragedy, joyful pessimism;
- "artistic Socrates," "aesthetic Socrates";
- topoi (argumentation), tropes;
- nihilism (active, passive, accomplished);
- wills to power/truth;
- aesthetics, excess;
- philology of the future;
- etc., etc., etc.
The purpose of the seminar is not only to examine the three +dis/respects+ but also to read Nietzsche with care to de"term"ine his treatments of topoi and tropoi and, in doing so, to begin building a webpage for students of Rhetoric and Composition (a field, here, broadly defined). This seminar, therefore, will focus on key(less) terms that connect semiotically across your readings of Nietzsche and your readings of the fields Rhetoric and Composition (written communication, grammatology, etc.). Every attempt should be taken to allow for a will to power (an affirmative play of differences) to be brought to un/bear on presenting and performing FN's terms and R/C. The terms should be constructed ... performed ... as though 'they' will have written themselves as aphoristic-hypertexts. Is this a redundancy? If so, I find it necessary to double the saying of it.
(It needs to be--desires to become--understood that Nietzschean texts will have been 'casuistically stretched' [K. Burke] when linked to R/C, and R/C similarly stretched when linked to Nietzschean texts. Such a stretching may very well bruise the sensibilities of some people who browse through and read/study your contributions. You should take particular care to be aware of your audience. At times, however, in dis/order to make a connection, you will find it inevitable to stretch. So become it! As Lyotard says: it's necessary to link, but not how to link. ... And yet, I would ask you all to attempt an 'ethic of care' when working and playing here!)
Number of Contributions: Each of you in this seminar will write a minimum of 8 renderings of terms with cross-pollenated terms. Each of you--all of you--should work together to allow for the success of the project--which is a collaborative project. (There is no such thing as an Individual [the negative, sign of suppression].) You may 'sign' your individual entries ... if you believe in this Renaissance notion! And so, the obvious question remains: VVhat about grading?? A possible answer is that we will have had to revalue grading.
A couple of you have asked questions, which prompts me to add here: Understand .... that you discover the parathemes or terms from your readings of Nietzsche; .... that you select your terms during the seminar, not before; .... and that any number of you may work on the same term (in that event, we will just estabish separate files). Remember: We are just beginning to build this website, which will be an on-going website project and which will be connected to the Baudrillard Websites that we have begun and will be connected, as well, to the forthcoming Bataille and Deleuze & Guattari Websites. (These additional websites will be established in late August and be the major part of the work and play for the Fall Semester ['96] Seminar on Bataille and D&G.)
Some of you will not have much background in rhetorical or composition theory and, consequently, will not be able to draw parallels and develop them. That's okay. Others eventually will be able to make connections with your discussion. Also, understand that I may, most likely will, edit and revise your contributions. Slightly before classes begin, I will link up to the Project Page an example or two that you might follow, though it is not necessary to follow!
Due Dates ... Two renderings of terms are due on Thursday of the second full week, 2 on the third, 4 on the fourth. Intervening and remaining time will be spent revising (revising!!) and developing links among the contributions and other sites on the WWW.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you attempt to place your contributions on this page without my prior approval. As many of us as possible in seminar (on the listserv that will be established for the seminar) will examine each contribution and discuss it before I place it at the site.
If you should have to reach me by email, then, always remember that you are just a click away from me. And of course we can determine a time to meet together if you so wish and which I encourage.
You should make every effort to read and study carefully ... Gilman, et al., Trans., Friedrich Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language [N's lecture notes on the History of Rhetoric]
June 4-5
Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks and Birth of Tragedy
June 6
Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
June 10-11
The Gay Science
June 12-13
Beyond Good and Evil
June 17-18
Thus Spake Zarathustra & "Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense"
June 19-20
Toward Genealogy of Morals
June 24-25
Twilight of the Idols
June 26-27
Ecce Homo
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July 1-2 Full time Playing at the Site ... We have been invited by Fritz's Mom to have some strudel ...! |  |