un.becoming human readings
un.becoming human readings
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‘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:
- Direct Questions (for instructor or classmates)
- Open Ended Questions (to prompt further conversation)
- Definitions (key terms or just unfamiliar terms)
- Etymologies (explore the history and origins of key terms)
- Paraphrases (restate what you think a key claim is)
- Internal Connections (draw lines within the text)
- External Connections (link text with related texts)
- News Stories (events that speak to or are spoken to by the readings)
- Relevant Academic Work (other courses taken or projects undertaken)
- Resonant Art (poetry, literature, film, music)
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:
- define at least 2 key terms
- compose at least 2 paraphrases of key claims
- trace at least 1 etymology
- make at least 2 inter-textual connections
- make at least 2 intra-textual connections
- make at least 2 external connections
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.
engl_4030_5030_syllabus.pdfSpring 2019 Syllabus
posthumanism_infographic.pdfpost.human infographic
the_rhetorical_tradition_glossary.pdfGlossary from The Rhetorical Tradition.
World(s) of Tomorrow
World(s) of Tomorrow
World of Tomorrow-HD.mp4World of Tomorrow. Don Hertzfeldt, 2015.
WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE TWO_ THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS.mp4World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts. Don Hertzfeldt, 2017.
Novel Engagements
Novel Engagements
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.
Writing Rhetorics
Writing Rhetorics
Richard Lanham,”The ’Q’ Question”
Thomas Rickert,”Rhetorical Prehistory”
John Muckelbauer, ”Returns of the Question”
Ursula Le Guin, ”The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”
Michel Foucault, ”Self Writing”
General Introduction (5030 Only)
Post.human Groundings
Post.human Groundings
John Muckelbauer and Debra Hawhee,"Posthuman Rhetorics"
Rosi Braidotti,"A Theoretical Framework for Critical Posthumanities"
Karen Barad"Posthumanist Performativity"
Bernhard Siegert,"Cultural Techniques"
Enlightenment Rhetorics, Part One
Enlightenment Rhetorics, Part One
John Locke,"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
David Hume,"Of the Standard of Taste"
Margaret Cavendish,"Orations of Divers Sorts"
Giambattista Vico,"On the Study of Methods in Our Time"
Enlightenment Rhetoric Introduction (5030 Only)
Enlightenment Rhetorics, Part Two
Enlightenment Rhetorics, Part Two
Mary Astell,"A Serious Proposal to the Ladies"
Gilbert Austin,"Chironomia"
Thomas Sheridan."A Course of Lectures on Elocution"
19th Century Rhetorics, Part One
19th Century Rhetorics, Part One
Frederick Douglass,"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," "My Bondage and My Freedom," & "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass"
Richard Whately,"Elements of Rhetoric" (First 15 pages)
Maria Stewart, “Lecture Delivered At The Franklin Hall” & “Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address to Her Friends in the City of Boston”
Sarah Grimké,“Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman”
Phoebe Palmer,"Tongue of Fire on the Daughters of the Lord"
19th Century Rhetoric Introduction (5030 Only)
19th Century Rhetorics, Part Two
19th Century Rhetorics, Part Two
Herbert Spencer,"The Philosophy of Style"
William James,"Instinct"
Friedrich Nietzsche,"On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense"
Frances Willard,From Woman in the Pulpit
language_and_instinct.pdfPost.Modern Rhetorics, Part One
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part One
Kenneth Burke, "A Grammar of Motives," "A Rhetoric of Motives," & "Language as Symbolic Action"
Virginia Wolfe, “Professions for Women,” “Women and Fiction,” & "A Room of One's Own" (“Dorothy Richardson" is optional)
I.A. Richards,"The Philosophy of Rhetoric" (Optional)
Modern and Postmodern Rhetoric Introduction (5030 Only)
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Two
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Two
Richard Weaver,"Language is Sermonic"
Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, "The New Rhetoric" (First 12 pages)
Zora Neale Hurston,"Crazy for Democracy"
Stephen Toulmin,"The Uses of Argument" (Optional)
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Three
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Three
Michel Foucault, "The Order of Discourse"
Jacques Derrida,"Signature, Event, Context"
Hélène Cixous,"The Laugh of the Medusa"
postmodern_posthumans.pdfA 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.
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Four
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Four
bell hooks,"Homeplace (a Site of Resistance)"
Wayne Booth,"Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Accent"
Jim Corder,"Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love"
love.pdfA 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.
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Five
Post.Modern Rhetorics, Part Five
Henry Louis Gates Jr.,"The Signifying Monkey"
Gloria Anzaldúa,"Borderlands"
perpendicular_universes_nepantilism.pdfA brief collection of pull quotes from the adjacent texts to guide our discussion.
Rhetorical Situations, Part One
Rhetorical Situations, Part One
Lloyd Bitzer, "The Rhetorical Situation"
Richard Vatz,"The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation"
Barbara Biesecker,"Rethinking the Rhetorical Situation from Within the Thematic of Différance"
D. Diane Davis, "Rhetoricity at the End of the World"
Scott Consigny,"Rhetoric and Its Situations" (Optional)
Rhetorical Situation Infographic
rhetorics_situations.pdfA 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).
Rhetorical Situations, Part Two
Rhetorical Situations, Part Two
Jenny Edbauer,"Unframing Models of Public Distribution"
Thomas Rickert,"In the House of Doing"
John Muckelbauer,"Implicit Paradigms of Rhetoric"
Kristin L. Arola & Adam Arola,"An Ethics of Assemblage"
Casey Boyle,"Writing and Rhetoric and/as Posthuman Practice"
rhetorics_situations_heuristc.pdfA 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).
Nathaniel Rivers and Maarten Derksen,"Ecologies of Deception" [Optional]
Paul Lynch"Shadow Living"[Optional]
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