‘What is rhetoric?’ […] ‘The art of never finally answering that question’ […] [but] even if rhetoric is the art of never finally answering the question, 'What is rhetoric?' this art would necessarily include all attempts to finally answer that question.
-John Muckelbauer, “Returns of the Question”
Together as a class, we will annotate each and every reading found here. Each week, using hypothes.is, students as a group will contribute annotations that create linkages between and among readings, that engage and build from the annotations of others, and that recontextualize the readings in our contemporary scene. Here is a sample from a previous iteration of this course.
A running list of possible annotation types:
Remember to tag your annotations as well.
Finally, avoid engagements of the readings that amount to thumbs up/thumbs down readings or critiques (i.e, “this is contradictory,” “I dis/agree,” “the author leaves out x”). These responses certainly reveal how a reader is engaging the text, but they do little, on their own, to put the texts to work for us. Ascent to the readings to see where they might lead you. (Annotative course design inspired by Casey Boyle. I strongly encourage you to read his "--something like a reading ethics," in particular the section "Reading Ethics," which outlines "a series of steps to read and cite more productively.")
I want to try out this set of required guidelines for this semester. Add a minimum of 20 annotations. As part of those 20, be sure to:
It really is imperative that you keep up with the readings: once you fall behind, as has been born out in previous semesters, there really is no catching up.. There just isn't much wiggle room in the schedule.
World of Tomorrow. Don Hertzfeldt, 2015.
World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts. Don Hertzfeldt, 2017.
Over the course of the semester (as indicated in the syllabus) students will choose from a set of novels that we will engage in the context of rhetoric and posthumanism. The novels are in pairs, with students choosing one from each pairing.
A brief collection of pull quotes from the above texts as well as Dawn and Blindsight, to guide our discussion of the readings for this week.
A brief collection of pull quotes from the above texts as well as Cixous from the previous week to guide our discussion of the readings for this week.
A brief collection of pull quotes from the above texts to guide our discussion. There are just a few here as students will themselves be curating quotes (in preparation for the Database Project).
A brief collection of pull quotes from the above texts to guide our discussion. There are just a few here as students will themselves be curating quotes (in preparation for the Database Project).