courses
Summer 2013Fall 2013Spring 2013Fall 2012 archives

	Rhetoric 1A/1B
	Undergraduate Courses
	010  Intro to Practical Reasoning 010  Intro to Practical Reasoning F13 010  Modern Reason Session A 010  Modern Reason 020  Rhetoric of Interpretation Session D 020  Rhetoric of Interpretation Su13 020  Rhetorical Interpretation (Sp 13) 024  Ansel Adams's Fiat Lux and the Visual Rhetoric of Berkeley in the 1960s 024  Arguing with Judge Judy 024  Bad Books and How to Spot Them 024  Decoding the Mysteries of Literature 10  Intro to Practical Reasoning Session A 10  Introduction to Practical Reasoning 103A  Are We Not Men?  Classical Rhetoric for Real   103A  Classical Rhetorical Theory 103A  History of Rhet Theory I Su13 103A  History of Rhet Theory I 103A  History of Rhetorical Theory I F13 103A  Introduction to Rhetorical Theory Session A 103B  History of Rhet Theory II Su13 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory II Session D 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory II 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory Session D 104  Before and After the Digital 104  The Unconscious in Modern Culture 105T  Religious and Moral Alternatives in Greco-Roman Antiquity 105T  Rhetoric of Religious Discourse 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse F13 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse 107  Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse 108  Rhetoric of Philosophical Discourse 109  Aesthetics and Rhetoric 110  Advanced Argumentation 112  Rhetoric of Narrative Genres in Non-Literate Societies (Sp 13) 114  Rhetoric of Digital Media 118  Theory & Practice of Reading & Interpretation F13 118  Theory and Practice of Reading and Interpretation 121  Rhetoric of Fiction (Sp 13) 121  Rhetoric of Fiction Session A 121  The Rhetoric of Selfhood in the Graphic Novel Session A 122  Rhetoric of Drama 124  Rhetoric of Poetry 124  Rhetoric of Poetry 125  Poetry and Poetics 127  Novel, Society & Politics (Sp 13) 128T  Rhetoric and Politics of Interviews 129  Rhetoric of Autobiography F13 129  Rhetoric of Autobiography 129AC  Rhetoric of Autobiography 130  Adaptations of Female Gothic Horror 130  Novel Into Film 130  Novel into Film 131T  Genre in Film and Literature 131T  Screening Sex 131T  The Western/Film Noir Hybrid 132T  ‘Documentary’ Visions 132T  Auteur in Film 132T  The Films of Powell & Pressburger 133T  Theories of Film 135T  American National Identity in Film 135T  Performance in Film 135T  Selected Topics in Film 135T  Selected Topics in Film 138  Rhetoric of Television Criticism 150  Rhet of Contemporary Politics F13 151  Rhetoric of Contact and Conquest 152AC  Before the Civil War 152AC  Race & Order in the New Republic F13 152AC  Race & Order in the New Republic 152AC  Race and Order in the New Republic 153  American Political Rhetoric 156  Dangerous Fictions 156  Political Fiction in the 18th Century 157A  Modern Political Theory 157A  Rhetoric of Modern Political Theory 157B  Rhetoric of Contemporary Political Theory 159A  Great Theorists in Political and Legal Theory 159B  Great Themes in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Political and Legal Theory 160  Intro to Rhetoric of Legal Discourse Session D 160  Intro to the Rhet of Legal Discourse Su13 160  Intro to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse Session D 160  Intro to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse 165  Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy F13 165  Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy 166  Practices of Rhetoric, Law and Politics 167  Advanced Themes in Legal Theory, Philosophy, Argumentation 168  Advanced Themes in Contemporary Law & Legal Discourse 170  Rhetoric of Social Science 171  The Problem of Mass Culture & the Rhetoric of Social Theory 172  Rhetoric of Social Theory 182  Rhetorics of Sexual Exchange and Sexual Difference 20  The Rhetoric of Interpretation
	Graduate Courses

Undergraduate Courses

Rhetoric 129AC: Autobiography and the Rhetoric of Individualism in America

Scheduled
Fall 2012  Instructor(s)  Michael Mascuch

This Rhetoric course is intended to fulfill the American Cultures Breadth Requirement.  Its basic purpose is to introduce students to American autobiography and American cultures by means of exploring how representations of personal experience by writers of diverse cultural groups respond to or are otherwise informed by the American rhetoric of individualism. We will begin with a general, critical discussion of "individualism" as an ideology and of "autobiography" as a literary genre that performs a specific rhetorical function for Americans, and then move on to explore the complex relationship between genre and ideology in American cultures through rhetorical analysis of particular autobiographies. We will examine a series of primary works drawn from three distinct American cultures: African Americans, European Americans, and Native Americans, to consider how these texts address the imperatives of ideology and genre.

Requirements: Besides written work, regular class attendance and participation in class discussion.  In order to participate, you must keep up with the reading assignments.  You will post weekly responses on bSpace and write three analytical arguments: one brief (4-5 pp.) analysis of the introductory concepts; one medium (5-7 pp.), and one longish (7-10 pp.) interpretive/comparative papers that apply the concepts to individual autobiographies.  There is no midterm and no final exam.
 

Required Reading

1.   Course reader (to be posted on bSpace).
2.   Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, ed David W. Blight, 2nd paper edn.  (New York: Bedford/: St. Martin’s Press, 2002). ISBN-10: 0312257376
3.   Richard Wright, Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (paper edn., New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008). ISBN-10: 0061443085
4.   N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976). ISBN-10: 0826304362
5.   Black Elk Speaks, Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, (3rd edn., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004).  ISBN-10: 0803283857
6.   Joan Didion, Where I Was From (Paper edn, New York: Vintage, 2004).  ISBN-10: 0679752862
7.   Luc Sante, The Factory of Facts (Paper edn., New York: Vintage, 1999). ISBN-10: 0679746501