CMCL-C 334: Current Topics in Communication and Culture
(Topic: Baseball and the Rhetorical Construction of America)
Class Number: 10223
Summer Session I

MTuWTh, 6:00 PM-7:30 PM, BH 340


Instructor: Michael Butterworth
E-Mail: mbutterw@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 257
Phone: 855-8539

Course Description: It is the "national pastime," or the "American
game."  We know that it is as "American" as motherhood and apple
pie.  It has occupied the attention of sports fans, academics,
popular writers, and politicians alike, all of whom seem eager to
hail the game's special link to the nation.  It is celebrated as a
romantic metaphor of life's seasons, for its pastoral imagery that
evokes an agrarian past, and above all as an ideal institution of
liberal democracy.  Baseball, in short, has earned a unique place in
American history and culture.  The place of baseball in the United
States has long been taken for granted, perhaps best symbolized by
the French sociologist Jacques Barzun, who famously noted, "Whoever
wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn
baseball."  The current museum tour sponsored by the National
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, entitled "Baseball as America,"
further affirms the cultural connection between the game and the
nation.  Yet it is precisely at those moments and places where
relationships are seen as fixed that rhetorical and cultural critics
must interrupt the standard narratives with which we are all so
familiar.  Rarely do we ask why, or how, baseball came to be the
national pastime.  Especially now, in a post-9/11 world
characterized by perpetual war and questions regarding the scope and
purpose of American political, economic, and military power, we must
attend to the institutions of our popular culture that claim to
define what it means to be "American."  This course, therefore,
looks to baseball as a lens through which we can analyze,
understand, and critique American culture.  It argues that
baseball's history constitutes a mythology that works alongside
other mythologies that have shaped people and ideas in the United
States.  It is not, therefore, a course about baseball history in
and of itself.  Rather, it is a course that sees baseball as a
rhetorical phenomenon, one through which America as a nation is
constructed, maintained, and modified.

Class Sessions: Much of our discussion will focus on the problems
raised by viewing baseball as a metaphor for America—problems for
both the game and the nation.  Yet this should not suggest that it
is merely about criticizing baseball and/or the United States.
Instead, it is an opportunity to engage with the rhetorical hopes
and promises embedded in American culture and to envision new and
different possibilities for our popular institutions and democratic
practices.  As sport sociologist Robert Elias notes, "When America
and the national pastime fail to live up to their ideals, having a
critical perspective seems like the only true patriotic response."
This course will confront directly questions of nationalism,
patriotism, and citizenship.  It is expected that students will come
to each class session fully prepared to discuss the readings and
engage in productive discussions about the course themes and
arguments.  Differences of opinion are encouraged, and fans and
critics of baseball are equally welcome.

Reading Material: Readings will come from a variety of sources
including rhetorical scholars, baseball historians, and popular
writers.  We also will use film and television representations of
baseball.  The course is organized around six mythologies which will
lead to four essay assignments.  These essays, along with class
participation, will be used to determine grades.