C705: Seminar in Rhetorical Criticism
Topic: Metaphor, Myth, and the Rhetoric of Democracy
Fall 2000
Time and Location: Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Mottier 112,
Instructor: Robert L. Ivie
Office Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, Mottier 203
Books for the Seminar
1. Benjamin R. Barber, A Passion for Democracy: American Essays (Princeton UP, 1998)
2. Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth (NY: Dover, 1946)
3. Stephen H. Daniel, Myth and Modern Philosophy (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1990)
4. Alan Gilbert, Must Global Politics Constrain Democracy? Great-Power Realism, Democratic Peace, and Democratic Internationalism (Princeton UP, 1999)
5. Ernesto Grassi, Rhetoric as Philosophy: The Humanist Tradition (University Park: Penn State UP, 1980)
Purpose of the Seminar
The aim of the seminar is to explore the rhetorical potential of myth and metaphor for reconstituting the image of democracy
from a diseased to a healthy political practice. A major challenge is to identify reified myths operating in U.S. political
culture which shape our present understanding of democracy. Accordingly, metaphor is examined both as a medium of
political myth and as a source of rhetorical invention for enriching the nation's democratic imagination and promoting an
expectation of participatory politics. The attitude of the seminar is a combination of intellectual exploration and productive
critique. We begin by examining Cassirer's treatment of mythic and metaphorical thinking. Next, we turn to Daniel's
systematic examination of the mythic and metaphoric character of the appeal to rationalism that marks modern philosophy.
We then consider Grassi's application of Vico's metaphoric vision to rhetoric as the ground of society. With these readings
as our primary resource, we ultimately engage the efforts of two democratic theorists to articulate a more robust vision of
self-rule: first Barber's expression of his passion for a stronger American democracy and then Gilbert's hope for democratic
internationalism. What mythic resources do they bring to bear on their projects? What opportunities do they miss?
Major Assignments
In addition to the weekly discussions of assigned readings, members of the seminar will each write two papers, both
approximately 15 pages long, following MLA, APA or another standard style sheet appropriate to scholarship in the liberal
arts. Each paper counts 50% of the course grade.
The first paper advances a critical review of a selected work on myth and/or metaphor specifically for the purpose of
enriching our reading of Cassirer, Daniel, and Grassi applied to the problem of democracy. The goal of this assignment is to
expand the theoretical corpus available to us for understanding the operation of myth in democratic political culture. Thus,
you are charged with explicating the selected theorist's position against the backdrop of course readings and purpose. Each
member of the seminar will distribute his or her paper to the class the Monday preceding the meeting in which it will be
discussed. Since we would like to achieve as much coverage as possible, I'll ask everyone to sign up in advance for a
particular theorist. Some suggested theorists for this assignment include Roland Barthes, Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade,
Northrop Frye, René Girard, Carl Jung, George Lakoff, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Bruce Lincoln, John S. Nelson, Friedrich
Nietzsche, Paul Ricoeur, I. A. Richards, Colin Murray Turbayne, Victor Turner, Giambattista Vico, John B. Vickery, and
Philip Wheelwright. You may suggest others. For a general guide to the study of myth, see William G. Doty, Mythography:
The Study of Myths and Rituals, 2nd ed. (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2000). For useful collections of
works on metaphor, see Mark Johnson, ed., Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1981) and Andrew Ortony, ed., Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
The second paper is a comparative study of the mythic resources found in a vision of robust democratic practice advanced
by a theorist-rhetor other than Barber or Gilbert. The purpose of this assignment is to help construct an inventory of
cultural/rhetorical resources for rehabilitating democracy. Thus, this paper explicates the selected theorist-rhetor's
representation of democracy with particular attention to embedded myth, in comparison to Barber and Gilbert, and with an
eye to its rhetorical potential within a context of U.S. political culture. Again, each member of the seminar will distribute his
or her paper to the class the Monday preceding the meeting in which it will be discussed. I will ask everyone to sign up in
advance for a particular theorist-rhetor in order to insure maximum coverage and minimum duplication. Some suggested
theorist-rhetors for this assignment include Bruce Ackerman, Norberto Bobbio, John Dryzek, Antonio Gramsci, Jürgen
Habermas, Russell Hanson, David Held, Jeffrey Isaac, C. Douglas Lummis, C. B. Macpherson, Chantal Mouffe, Anne
Phillips, Richard Rorty, Michael Saward, Ian Shapiro, and Cornell West. You may suggest others.
Seminar Schedule
September 1: Cassirer, Language and Myth
September 8: Daniel, Myth and Modern Philosophy, Introduction and chapters 1-3
September 16: Daniel, Myth and Modern Philosophy, chapters 4-7
September 22: Grassi, Rhetoric and Philosophy
September 29: Lecture on Myth and American Democracy
October 6: Paper #1
October 13: Paper #1
October 20: Barber, Passion for Democracy, chapters 1-11
October 27: Barber, Passion for Democracy, chapters 12-20
November 3: Gilbert, Must Global Politics Constrain Democracy?, Introduction and chapters 1-2
November 17: Gilbert, Must Global Politics Constrain Democracy?, chapters 3-5
December 1: Paper #2
December 8: Paper #2