Rhetorical Activism
and United States Civil Rights Movements |
English 319 Graders |
Course Information |
Welcome | Texts for the Course | Primary Activities |
Services for Students with Disabilities |
Meeting
Requirements | Office Hours |
Communication | Grading | Academic Integrity |
Some Final Notes |
Welcome Welcome to English 319. This course has as its focus a phenomenon very basic and yet incredibly complex: the use of language to affect the world in which we live. When we think of language as action, as having consequences in the world (rather than simply reflecting or representing the world), we are thinking of rhetorical activism. In this class, we'll study the words of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things with language, people who have had inspiring effects on the ways United States citizens experience civil rights in this country. The signers of the United States Constitution recognized the power of rhetorical activism when they declared freedom of expression the most important right of United States citizens. Susan B. Anthony and dozens of other women spent eight decades using the only power they had, the power of language, to ensure women their right to vote in this country. The persuasive eloquence of Martin Luther King, Jr. changed this nation's consciousness as well as the experience of civil rights for all of its citizens. And although the United States did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, people like Shirley Chisholm and Betty Friedan forever altered the expectations and opportunities for women and men in this country. How did these ordinary men and women accomplish extraordinary things by speaking up and speaking out? More broadly, how do people use language to define, reform, and even revolutionize politics and society? That will be our central question as we study texts from several United States civil rights movements: the antislavery, early woman's rights, women's liberation, 1960s Civil Rights, and gay rights movements. This class focuses on rhetorical activism, rather than the history of these civil rights movements. That focus has important consequences, two of which warrant particular attention. First, the texts we'll study have been selected primarily because of the rhetorical principles they illustrate. They are not historically representative of the civil rights movements we're studying. I'll say more about that when I introduce the texts for the course. Second, we will approach the content of the course—the movement texts—as rhetorical critics, rather than as historians. Although we will need to know the circumstances surrounding these texts, we will concentrate on the rhetorical functions of the texts rather than their placement in history. For example, we will concern ourselves with things like the kinds of appeals a rhetor uses, the patterns of arrangement in a text, how a text reflects and/or constitutes its audience, and the figures of speech and other elements of style that emphasize or even demonstrate a text's arguments. At the end of a semester-long history course you might expect to know well the key figures and major ideas of the civil rights movements. On the other hand, at the end of this course—if you participate fully and complete the course requirements successfully—you can expect to understand language as action, rather than representation; rhetorical activism as an indispensable component of civic life; and, in pragmatic and technical (if introductory) ways, how people use language to define, reform, and even revolutionize politics and society. |
Texts for the Course I already mentioned that I selected texts based on the rhetorical principles they illustrate, rather than the ways they historically represent the antislavery, woman's rights, Civil Rights, women's liberation, or gay rights movements. So, for example, we're not reading about women's reproductive rights when we read from the women's liberation movement, nor are we reading about labor issues within the Civil Rights movement. There simply isn't time. Also, for instance, we're reading more of Stokely Carmichael's rhetorical activism than Malcolm X's, even though Malcolm X was arguably a more popular figure in the Civil Rights movement. But each selection we're reading is on the list for a particular reason, and we'll talk about these reasons during the semester. The readings have been compiled for your convenience and they are being stored at EXCEL, a test preparation and copy center. You may use this set of readings to make a copy for yourself at EXCEL. Their copies cost $.07 per page, with optional additional charges if you want your copies bound or three-whole punched. EXCEL is located at 1117 South University, above the Ulrich's computer and engineering store. Their phone number is 996-1500. A copy of the course readings is also available on reserve at the undergraduate library. I ask people to refer directly to the texts during discussion. Please bring assigned readings to class so that you can easily and quickly find the passage(s) under consideration. In response to student evaluations and comments from previous semesters, I have places two books on reserve that may be used as reinforcement for the rhetorical theory we discuss in class. Those texts, Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee's Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students and Gerard Hauser's Introduction to Rhetorical Theory, are on reserve at the undergraduate library. If you would like more information about the rhetorical theory we'll use in this course, please check in with me via email or during office hours. We can talk more about it then, and I will be happy to suggest additional readings if that would be useful. |
Primary Activities Readings Quizzes Exams Participation |
Services for Students with Disabilities If you think you may need an accommodation for any sort of disability, please contact Services for Students with Disabilities (G-625 Haven Hall, 763-3000) and make an appointment to see me during my office hours within the first two weeks of the semester. |
Meeting Requirements LS&A's Race and Ethnicity Requirement English's New Traditions and American Literature Requirements |
Office Hours I will hold office hours throughout the semester. Office hours are an extension of the classroom. You are welcome to come by with questions, comments, and concerns. If you are enjoying a reading and would like to discuss it further, if you are having a problem with something in the course, if you don't understand something, please come and see me. |
Communication I will use email to contact class members in case class is canceled because of snow or some other emergency, or if I want to pass on useful information about the course. I also will post this sort of information on the website for the course, http://www.umich.edu/~alisse/ENGL319f04/index.html. With Your Classmates |
Grading |
Academic Integrity Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, cheating, aiding and abetting dishonesty, and fabrication, will not be tolerated. Please read carefully the Department of English Language and Literature's memo on plagiarism which is posted at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/undergraduate/plag.htm. If you have any questions about "what counts," see me. |
Some Final Notes Changes in the Policies and Schedule of Assignments |
Most recent update: September 5, 2004.
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A.P. 2004