Rhetorical Theory and
Discourses of Social Change

Winter 2004

 

Professor Alisse Portnoy
alisse@umich.edu

4172 Angell Hall
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Michigan
763-4279

 


Readings List

Books for the course are available at Shaman Drum Bookshop. Most of the essays and book sections we'll be reading are available online at a password-protected site. There will also be primary social movement texts distributed by you and your classmates each week. Although not all of the readings listed below will be assigned for the course, you should of course feel free to browse around and read what interests you.


English 678 Home

Books

Aristotle. On Rhetoric (trans. George Kennedy)
Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble (10th anniv. ed.).
Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives.
Foucault, Michel. Archaeology of Knowledge.
Mailloux, Steven. Reception Histories.
Norton, Anne. Republic of Signs.
Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. The New Rhetoric.
Warner, Michael. Letters of the Republic.


Essays, Chapters, and Sections (still, and probably perpetually, under construction)

Anderson, Benedict. from Imagined Communities.
Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses."
Balibar, Etienne. "The Nation Form: History and Ideology."
Biesecker, Barbara. "Coming to Terms with Recent Attempts to Write Women into the History of Rhetoric."
Biesecker, Barbara. "Negotiating with Our Tradition: Again (Without Apologies) on the Feminization of Rhetoric."
Biesecker, Barbara. "Rethinking the Rhetorical Situation from Within the Thematic of Differance."
Bitzer, Lloyd. "The Rhetorical Situation."
Black, Edwin. "The Second Persona."
Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Forms of Capital."
Burke, Kenneth. from Attitudes Toward History.
Burke, Kenneth. "Definition of Man."
Burke, Kenneth. "Terministic Screens."
Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech. Introduction.
Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech. Chapter 4.
Campbell, Karlyn Korhs. "Biesecker Cannot Speak for Her Either."
Charland, Maurice. "Constitutive Rhetoric."
Crowley, Sharon and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Modern Students. Chapter 1.
Derrida, Jacques. "Declarations of Independence."
Fahnestock, Jeanne. "Accommodating Science."
Fahnestock, Jeanne. from Rhetorical Figures in Science.
Fahnestock, Jeanne and Marie Secor. "The Rhetoric of Literary Criticism."
Fields, Barbara Jeanne. "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States."
Fisher, Walter. "Narrative as Human Communication Paradigm."
Jasinski, James. "A Constitutive Framework for Rhetorical Historiography."
Lakoff, Robin. "The Grooves of Academe," from Talking Power: The Politics of Language.
Lakoff, Robin. "Language, Politics, and Power," from Talking Power: The Politics of Language.
Lakoff, Robin. "We First," from Talking Power: The Politics of Language.
McCloskey, Deirdre. from Rhetoric of Economics.
McGee, Michael Calvin. "The Ideograph: A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology."
McGee, Michael.  "In Search of 'The People': A Rhetorical Alternative."
Morrison, Toni. "Unspeakable Things Unspoken."
Scarry, Elaine. "The Difficulty of Imagining Other Persons."
Schiappa, Ed. from Defining Reality: Definitions and the Politics of Meaning.
Scott, Joan Wallach. Only Paradoxes to Offer. Chapter One: "Reading the History of Feminism."
Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. "Discovering the Subject of the 'Great Constitutional Discussion'."
Tompkins, Jane. "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History."
Turner, Mark. from The Literary Mind.
Vatz, Richard. "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation."
Walker, Jeffrey. "On Rhetorical Traditions: A Reply to Jerzy Axer."
Walton, Douglas. "Persuasive Definitions and Public Policy Arguments."
White, James Boyd. "Introduction" from Justice as Translation.
White, James Boyd. "Translation, Interpretation, and Law" from Justice as Translation.
White, James Boyd. "A Way of Reading," from When Words Lose Their Meaning.
Zarefsky, David.  "Definitions."


Sociopolitical Texts Added by Members of the Class

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." (Portnoy)
Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan.” (Portnoy)
Dorfman, Ariel. “The Urge to Help.” (Portnoy)
Liebman, Marvin. Letter to William F. Buckley, Jr., and Buckley’s Response. (Portnoy)
Women's Antiremoval Petition, 1830. (Portnoy)
Covers and pages from Dispute Resolution Journal. (Ellis)
Simon, Scott. "Unrighteous Reverends." (Lutman)
Simon, Scott. "Reflections on the Events of September 11." (Lutman)
Deckenback, Reverend John R. "Terror and Faith." (Lutman)
Floyd, Ronnie.  "A Biblical Response." (Nair)
Hot Springs Letters. (Mackintosh)
Gillespie, Ed.  "Positive Vision Vs. Protest and Pessimism." (Friedlander)
Republican National Committee. Press Release. (Friedlander)
Gore, Al.  "Global Warming and the Environment." (Friedlander)
NOW Statement of Purpose, 1966. (St. Pierre)
Cobbe, Frances Power.  "Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors.  Is the Classification Sound?" (Hakala)

 

Most recent update: March 25, 2004.
http://www.umich.edu/~alisse