Critiquing War Propaganda
CMCL C616 Rhetorical Critiques of War
Joint-Listed with AMST G620 and CULS C701
Fall 2008
Professor: Robert Ivie
(rivie@indiana.edu; http://www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb; 800 East 3rd St., Rm. 247; 812-855-5467; office hours: MW by appointment)
Topic: Critiquing War Propaganda
Time: Monday, 3:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Purpose of the Course
The general purpose of the course is to adopt a rhetorical perspective for critically engaging discourses of war as a problem of political culture. The course is focused this semester on critiquing war propaganda, with particular emphasis on the U.S. in an age of total war. We are guided by Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy’s definition of war propaganda as a dehumanizing “fantasy of enmity, where we seek self-definition through constructing our antithesis.” This perspective on propaganda leads us to conceptualize the role of rhetoric/metaphor, myth/narrative, and symbol/ritual in expressions of the hostile imagination as we examine regimes of propaganda from the Great War through the Terror War. You are asked to participate actively in the discussion of assigned readings and to develop a term-long project that critiques war propaganda as a cultural practice, culminating in an article-length paper. I encourage you to discuss your ideas for a term project with me to achieve a convergence of your interests with course objectives. Your paper can examine war propaganda in countries and political cultures other than the U.S. if that is your interest.
Required Books
Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy, Politics and Propaganda: Weapons of Mass Seduction (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004).
Robert L. Ivie, Democracy and America’s War on Terror (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005).
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, trans. Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner (1965; New York: Vintage Books, 1973).
Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I (1927; Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1971).
J. Michael Sproule, Propaganda and Democracy: The American Experience of Media and Mass Persuasion (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Schedule of Readings
and Assignments
Note: Complete the assigned readings prior to class. Class meetings are primarily an opportunity for thoughtful and probing discussions informed by the assigned readings. Everyone should come to each class meeting with questions to ask and points to make. Discussion leaders for a given class meeting should coordinate with one another to prepare stimulating discussion questions and formats.
9/8 O’Shaugnessy, Politics and Propaganda, pp. 1-140
Robert L. Ivie, “Savagery in Democracy’s Empire,” Third World Quarterly 26.1 (2005): 55-65.
Note: This article is part of a special issue of TWQ on “The Politics of Naming”
9/15 O’Shaugnessy, Politics and Propaganda, pp. 172-244
Robert L. Ivie, “Fighting Terror by Rite of Redemption and Reconciliation,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 10 (Summer 2007): 221-248.
Note: This article is part of a special issue of R&PA on “Rhetoric and the War in Iraq”
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
9/22 Ivie, Democracy and America’s War on Terror, pp. 1-91
Robert L. Ivie and Oscar Giner, “Hunting the Devil: Democracy’s Rhetorical Impulse to War,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 37 (December 2007): 580-598.
Note: This article is part of a special issue of PSQ on “Shadows of Democracy in Presidential Rhetoric”
9/29 Ivie, Democracy and America’s War on Terror, pp. 92-198
Robert L. Ivie and Oscar Giner, “Genealogy of Myth in Presidential Rhetoric,” in Sourcebook for Political Communication Research: Methods, Measures, and Techniques, ed. Erik P. Bucy and R. Lance Holbert (Routledge, 2009 forthcoming).
10/6 Ellul, Propaganda, pp. ix-160
Frank Capra, “Why We Fight,” WWII propaganda series; an excerpt will be viewed in class.
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
10/13 Ellul, Propaganda, pp. 161-313
American War Propaganda Posters; examples will be shown in class; compare to North Korean war propaganda posters at http://calitreview.com/875
“Japanese Relocation,” U.S. government WWII propaganda film; an excerpt will be shown in class
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
10/20 Visiting Scholar: Ellen Gorsevski, Bowling Green State University, author of Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Rhetoric (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004). She asks that you prepare for her visit by reading the following:
“None Dare Call It Torture: Abu Ghraib and the Inner Workings of Press Dependence,” in W. Lance Bennett, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston, When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 72-107.
Patricia Howlett and Charles F. Howlett, “A Silent Witness for Peace: The Case of Schoolteacher Mary Stone McDowell and America at War,” History of Education Quarterly 48 (August 2008): 371-396.
“Along with the Howlett and Howlett article (and as graduate students start to think about going out on the academic job market themselves), it may also be an interesting and relevant point of discussion to read the form I had to sign as a precondition of my current job, asking, 'Is it substantively any different than that which McDowell refused to sign?'” See: http://www.homelandsecurity.ohio.gov/DMA_Terrorist/HLS_0037_Public_Employment.pdf
10/27 Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I, pp. ix-101
Norman Solomon, War Made Easy, a documentary based on his book by the same title; an excerpt will be viewed in class.
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
11/3 Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in World War I, pp. 102-222
Adam Curtis, “The Century of the Self.” This four-part documentary (each part is one hour) can be viewed online at either of two sites:
http://www.documentary-film.net/
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
11/10 Sproul, Propaganda and Democracy, pp. 1-128
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
11/17 Sproul, Propaganda and Democracy, pp. 129-271
Discussion Leaders: (1) _____________________; (2) _____________________
11/24 NCA
12/1 Research Paper: Oral Presentations and Discussion
12/8 Research Paper: Oral Presentations and Discussion
Evaluation
Course grades will be determined by the following percentages:
40% discussion participation and discussion leadership
10% oral presentation of research paper
50% research paper (7,000 – 8,000 words)—your paper is due in class on the day of your oral presentation
Papers should be written in an academic style suitable for submission to an appropriate scholarly journal. Projects may vary according to each student’s discipline but must be developed in a way that is consistent with course objectives and content. Your research will extend beyond the assigned readings, but you should incorporate into your papers ideas and sources covered in the class. No later than October 15, you should discuss your research topic and plan with me and/or send me a 500-word project proposal.
The ten-minute oral presentation, based on your research paper, should be carefully planned to be delivered extemporaneously (do not read from your paper or read word-for-word from a manuscript; instead use a set of speaking notes with which you have rehearsed the presentation two or three times).
Additional Resources
Andersen, Robin. A Century of Media, A Century of War. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.
Dolan, Frederick and Thomas Dumm, ed. Rhetorical Republic: Governing Representations in American Politics. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Dower, John W. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.
Hartnett, Stephen John and Laura Ann Stengrim, Globalization and Empire: The U.S. Invasion of Iraq, Free Markets, and the Twilight of Democracy (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006).
Hughes, Richard T. Myths America Lives By. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
Kellner, Douglas. From 9/11 to Terror War: The Dangers of the Bush Legacy (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
Ivie, Robert L. Dissent from War. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press,
2007.
Jowett, Garth S. and Victoria O’Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006.
Kamalipour, Yahya R. and Nancy Snow, ed., War, Media, and Propaganda: A Global Perspective. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Keen, Sam. Faces of the Enemy. Enlarged Edition. 1986; San Francisco: Harper & Row, 2004.
Kumar, Deepa. “Media, war, and
propaganda: Strategies of information management during the 2003 Iraq War,” Communication & Critical/Cultural
Studies 3.1 2006 48-69.
McDonald, Scott. Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century: Altered Images and Deception Operations. London: Routledge, 2007.
Snow, Nancy. Information War. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003.
Solomon, Norman . War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
Taylor, Philip M. Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda from the Ancient World to the Present Day, 3rd ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Winkler, Carol K., In the Name of Terrorism: Presidents on Political Violence in the Post-World War II Era (Albany: SUNY Press, 2006).