Craft of Writing

Rhetoric R1B: The Craft of Writing
“Making Words, Making Worlds”
Instructor: J. Lum

This course provides an introduction to the critical analysis and practice of argumentation, by examining the figure of the rhetorical act. By looking at key texts addressing the function and consequences of rhetorical acts, we will explore the role that everyday language plays in shaping understandings and practices of selfhood, otherness, community, truth, and knowledge. As a vessel of meaning, and as an instrument of communication, what kinds of freight does language carry? How do we act through and in relation to language, and how does language act through and upon us? What kinds of historical, political, social, and ethical worlds do rhetorical acts (re)make? By closely reading and crafting arguments about the works of Nietzsche, Freud, Austin, Derrida, Butler, Fanon, and Foucault, among others, we will explore the capacity of language to shape and to unsettle the conditions of contemporary, everyday life.