Rhetorical Interpretation

This course introduces students to issues in rhetorical interpretation, thinking about how meaning and effects are created, not only through the organization of content, but also through the organization of form. Students will be exposed to debates on the rhetorical production of culture from across the fields of literature, politics, anthropology, philosophy, and the arts. In order to focus our cross-disciplinary inquiry, this spring we will explore "performance" as an artistic, social, and linguistic form. How does performance integrate text, image, gesture, and sound? What does it mean to be an audience member, spectator, or witness to performance? How do rituals, protests, or other forms of collective behavior constitute and/or disrupt a community of citizens? How does performance operate privately and publicly in everyday life? What is the relation between performance and concepts of performativity in the constitution of both subjects and institutions? How does performance function in what many call a contemporary "experience economy?"

In addition to lectures and sections, students will be encouraged to attend/observe a variety of performance events throughout the Bay Area. Readings will draw from thinkers and artists such Abu-Lughod, Adorno, Austin, Boal, Bell, Benjamin, Brecht, Butler, Chekhov, de Certeau, Foucault, Fried, Goffman, Habermas, Hardt, Hochschild, Kaprow, Mitchell, Negri, Pine/Gilmore, Phelan, Sedgwick, Sennet, Smith, Turner, Virno, Williams.