Victor J. Vitanza
English 5351
(History of Rhetoric I)
Spring 1999

Course Description and Objectives:

The primary purpose is to introduce some of the characters who have been canonized as being in the grand narrative of The History of Rhetoric.

Other purposes:

To demonstrate how history, The History, has come to be written across specific ideological predispositions.

To examine what the term "rhetoric" has variously meant, but also can mean.

To examine the so-called conflict between Philosophy and Rhetoric (e.g., Plato/Aristotle vs. the Sophists).

To examine what can be called the differences among Philosophy, Philosophical Rhetoric, and Sophistic Rhetoric.

To examine various theories (explicit or implicit, incipient) of language and their/its role in the polis (we will focus on what can be called logophobia).

To examine the relationships among rhetoric, ethics, and politics; men, women, slaves, barbarians.

To examine the concept of "giving an account [logos] of oneself" or "caring for self."

To search for what has been excluded, both people and ideas.

And always, "etc."

Assignments:

Every week each of you will present a one-sentence response to the readings. (We will not linger over these; they are to give some indication of an insight that you had during your week of reading.) Every week, one of you will present a three-page, double-spaced position statement on the readings, with the object being the stimulation of discussion. (We may linger over this paper for a while.) At the end of the semester, each of you will submit a twenty page paper, fully researched and documented, on some aspect of the content of the course. (At the final class, each of you will make a brief presentation of your project and what your provisional conclusions are.)

A possible exception to the number of papers: If enrollment is below 10 students, I will moderate the number of three-page papers in the light of the final research paper. In other words, I may require all brief papers, say, seven of them and no final paper, or any combination of both short and long papers.

The Topics of your twenty-page papers must be approved by me. I want a prospectus stating precisely what you intend to do and how you are going to do it. And I want a preliminary bibliography. I have a number of topics in mind if you are interested. (All papers are to be written following the standard research and writing academic protocols.) Papers are to be documented according to the MLA style sheet.

Since this is an advanced seminar, I will not weigh the work done by M.A. and Ph.D. students in the same way. I will expect much more from the doctoral rhetoric students.

Grades:

Participation in class and on line counts 1/4; papers presented in class counts 1/4; major project counts 1/2. (There will be a Listserv discussion group for this seminar.)

Attendance:

Being-t/here is important. Attend class unless there is a good, documentable excuse. I reserve the right to lower your final grade one letter if you do not attend regularly or you are not prepared for class. I will give you one warning in writing.

Texts for Course:

Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. trans. George A. Kennedy. (pb) Oxford UP

Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination. (pb)

Heidegger, Martin. Early Greek Thinking. (pb)

Isocrates. The Orations. (3 vols.)

Jarratt, Susan. Rereading the Sophists. Southern Illinois UP

Kerferd, The Sophistic Movement. (pb)

Neel, Jasper. Plato, Derrida, and Writing. (pb)

Nietzsche, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. (pb)

Poulakos, John. Sophistical Rhetoric in Classical Greece. (cloth)

Sprague. The Older Sophists. South Carolina UP ... Out of Print! ...

Vitanza, Victor J. Negation, Subjectivity, and The History of Rhetoric. SUNY UP.

(and numerous works at the copy center, across from the post office, in UTA Student Union)

Some Histories of Rhetoric:

I did not order any histories of rhetoric, but you can find them available in most libraries. You might want to look at ...

Kennedy, George. Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of NC P, 1980.

Ijsseling, Samuel. Rhetoric and Philosophy in Conflict: An Historical Survey. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976.

Conley, Thomas M. Rhetoric in the European Tradition. NY: Longman, 1990.

Vickers, Brian. In Defence of Rhetoric. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1988, 1990.

Covino, William A. The Art of Wondering: A Revisionist Return to the History of Rhetoric. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, Heinemann, 1988.

Some Books on Historiographies of Rhetorics:

Poulakos, Takis, ed. Rethinking the History of Rhetoric: Multidisciplinary Essays on the Rhetorical Tradition. Polemics Series. Boulder: Westview P, 1993.

Vitanza, Victor J., ed. Writing Histories of Rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1994.

Works at Copy Center:

I have tried to find what I think are a few of the important discussions of particular rhetors, their works, and concepts. There is obviously much more out there to read. In gathering these works, I have tried to save each of you time, make them easily accessible, etc. The numbers in the syllabus correspond to the ID numbers in my file for this seminar at the Copy Center.

Syllabus:

Wk. 1 .....Introduction(s), with focus on Plato's "giving an account [logos] of self" and on Foucault's "technologies of the self" [#x] and "caring for self" [#x]. And with a focus on freedom of speech in antiquity, in relation to isegoria and parrhesia.

For a general, yet detailed, introduction to historiographies of rhetorics, see Vitanza, "Some Rudiments of Histories of Rhetorics and Rhetorics of Histories" [#x]. For a chronological investigation of rewriting histories of rhetoric, see Sharon Crowley, "Let Me Get This Straight," in Writing Histories of Rhetoric (see above, historiographies). For a general introduction to various historians in the history of rhetoric, but specifically in relation to composition studies, see Connors [#x].

Wk. 2 .....accounts of (or accounting for) The History of Rhetoric:

Corbett ("A Survey of Rhetoric" [#x]), Eagleton ("A Short History of Rhetoric" [#x]), Barthes ("The Old Rhetoric: an aide memoire" [#X]), Farenga ("Periphrasis on Origin" [#x]).

Wk. 3 .....Presocratics: Anixamander and Heraclitus

Texts of the Presocratics (Anixamander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides) are in booklet form [get #X].

For the Presocractics (the problem of), read Kofman, "Nietzsche and the Obscurity of Heraclitus" [#X]. Also, Nietzsche, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks; Heidegger, Early Greek Thinking. Havelock, Ch. 5 [#X]. For Anixamander, Rapaport, on To Apeiron [#X].

Wk. 4 .....Presocratics: Heraclitus (condt.) and Parmenides

For Parmenides, Nye, from ch. 1, Words of Power [#X]. Girard, Ch. 4, "Logos of Heraclitus..." [#X].

Wk. 5 .....the Sophists: In General

Texts of the Sophists are in Sprague, The Older Sophists; for commentary on the Sophists, read Kerferd, The Sophistic Movement. Havelock, Chs. 6-7 [#X].

For a historiographical controversy between Ed. Schiappa and J. Poulakos on whether or not the Sophists even ever "existed," see Poulakos, "Sophistic Definition" [#X]; "Rhetoric, Sophists, and the Possible" [#X]; Schiappa, "Did Plato Coin Rhetorike?" [#X]; "Neo-Sophistic Rhetorical Criticism" [#X]; Poulakos "Interpreting Sophistical Rhetoric" [#X]; Schiappa, "History and Neo-Sophistical Criticism: A Reply" [#X]. And Schiappa, "Sophistic Rhetoric: Oasis or Mirage?" [#X]; Vitanza, Ch. 1: "The Sophists?" (NSHR).

Wk. 6 .....the Sophists: Gorgias

Vitanza, Chaps. 6-7 on Gorgias in NSHR.

Wk. 7 .....the Sophists: Protagoras.

John Poulakos, Sophistical Rhetoric

Wk. 8 .....the Sophists: Antiphon.

Continue reading Poulakos; Havelock, ch.10, "Antiphon" [#x]

Wk. 9 ..... Plato: Gorgias; Phaedrus; Sophist

From Nye, Ch. 2, Words of Power [#13]. Derrida, from Disseminations.

Wk. 10 ..... Plato: Plato, Bk. IX (The Republic) [#X]; Alcibiades 1 and 2 [#X]

Neel, Plato, Derrida, and Writing.

Wks. 11-12 ..... Isocrates: The Orations.

Additional Readings for wks. 11-12: Jaeger, chs. from Paideia [#X]; Marrou. ch. from Education in Antiquity [#X]; Vitanza, Chaps. 3-4 on Isocrates in NSHR; T. Poulakos, Selections from his book Speaking for the Polis, forthcoming. Also, be sure to read Ijsseling, Ch. 3, "Isocrates and the Power of Logos" (Philosophy and Rhetoric in Conflict). [#X].

Wk. 13 ..... Aristotle: Rhetoric [Kennedy's trans.], Poetics.

Hutton, "Introduction" to Aristotle's Poetics [#x]. Halloran, "Aristotle's Ethos" [#X]. Selections from J. Atwill's Rhetoric Reclaimed.

Wk. 14 ..... Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Politics

Grimaldi, "Aristotle's Rhetoric" [#X]; Kinneavy, "William Grimaldi" [#X]; Havelock, Ch. 11, "Aristotle's Ethics" [#X]. From Nye, Ch. 3, Words of Power [#X].

Wk. 15 ..... A Return to the Sophists (Feminist and/or Third Sophistic)

Jarratt, Rereading the Sophists. (Discussion of Feminist Sophistic).

Vitanza, "Feminist Sophistic?" [NSHR]. (Discussion of a Third Sophistic).

Wk. 16 ..... Final: Oral Summary Presentation of Major Project (to be evaluated as part of final grade). I want not only the paper to be turned in but also want a brief (say, 500-word) description of the paper.