CMCL-C 501: Introduction to Rhetoric and Public Culture
Class Number: 22976

W, 2:30 PM-5:00 PM, MJ 112

Open to Graduates Only!

Instructor: John Lucaites
E-Mail: lucaites@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 202
Phone: 855-5411
As the title indicates, this graduate seminar is designed to
provide a preliminary overture into rhetoric and public culture.
Spanning from ancient Greece to the contemporary context of the
United States, it offers a rigorous survey of how rhetorical theory
and practice have been and could be mobilized in order to analyze,
interpret, and critique political life.  As such, rhetoric is
explored as a critical mode of cultural production that addresses
collective social and political democratic discourses, tensions, and
imaginaries as they are negotiated through a wide range of
communicative performances, including language, embodied gesture,
and visual image.

The first third of the course focuses on tensions raised by voices
in pre-modernity, including those from the Sophists, Plato,
Aristotle, and Isocrates.  The second two-thirds explores questions
since modernity, introducing and engaging themes such as: Contesting
Canons & Historiography; Ideographs and Performative Language;
Political Styles; Publics and Counterpublics; Antagonisms and
Democracy; Embodied and Material Rhetorics; and Memory Studies.
Although this course deliberately identifies foundational
vocabulary, tensions, and figures in rhetoric and public culture, it
remains committed to serving more as a provocative and evocative
endeavor than a conclusive one.

NOTE: There are no prerequisites other than an investment in this
undertaking and the willingness to expend the time and energy it
requires.  On paper, the course fulfills a requirement for the CMCL
department (as one of three introductory courses needed for the M.A.
degree; and a highly recommended course for the Ph.D. program) and
will qualify as the main requirement for the IU Cultural Studies
Program.  Starting in Fall 2005, this course will be offered every
fall semester, alternating between Professor Lucaites and Professor
Pezzullo.

Course Assignments most likely will involve:
•	4 “Mini” Papers (due the four weeks during classical
rhetoric, each 2-3 pages)
•	Class Facilitation with a Small Group or Dyad
•	Individual Oral Presentation on Final Research Paper Topic
•	Final Research Paper: Annotated Bibliography of the readings
from one article

Textbooks are to be announced. Below are samples of potential
required texts:
•	An extensive list of readings on e-reserves (in addition to
approx. a book a week)
•	Isocrates I (The Oratory of Classical Greece, Vol. 4)
•	Plato, Gorgias and Phaedrus
•	Aristotle: A Theory of Civic Discourse
•	Austin, J. L. How To Do Things With Words
•	Jasinski, J. Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in
Contemporary Rhetorical Studies
•	Lucaites, J. L., et al. Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: A
Reader
•	Hariman, R. Political Style: The Artistry of Power
•	Selzer, J., and S. Crowley. Rhetorical Bodies