About
Since its inception in the fifth century BCE, rhetoric has been a powerful force in public affairs, education, politics, and in the practice of civic life. Its impact on the epistemological foundations of Western societies cannot be overstated and, until around the middle of the nineteenth century, rhetoric dominated formal education in Europe and the United States. To study the history of rhetoric is to catch a glimpse of the evolution of ideas, politics, and-in short-ways of being together in the world as they have developed since the time of the ancient Greeks. This course will introduce you to some of the major figures and concepts in the history of rhetoric and rhetorical thought, beginning with rhetoric's emergence in Classical Greece as a systematic pedagogy and practice of civic participation (being together) and then moving on to some more recent conversations in rhetorical theory. In addition to studying rhetoric's rich history of ideas and figures-what we might call the "content" of rhetorical history-we will also be concerned with studying the connections among and between various theories of language, politics, culture, power, social identities, and civic action. Since rhetoric was originally conceived as above all a productive art, one of the guiding concerns of our discussions this semester will be to ask, "What might rhetoric do for us in our present circumstances?"