Contemporary Political Rhetoric

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contemporary political rhetoric

English 614: Special Topics in Rhetoric

8:15-10:45pm TTh, 4116 JFSB

Spring 2012

brian jackson

801.422.8086 (office)

801.375.3966 (home)

Office hours: Wed, 1-4pm

“rhetoric, according to my view, is the ghost or counterfeit of politics.”

-Socrates, in Gorgias (463d)

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required texts

Bowers, John W., Donovan J. Ochs, and Richard J. Jensen. The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control. 3rd ed. Waveland P, 2009.

Perelman, Chaim. The Realm of Rhetoric

Course reserve through BYU library

why study cpr?

There are few goals more important than figuring out how we're supposed to live together. Through political philosophy we ask hard questions to deal with our overlapping—and,more often than not, competing—interests, like "Who gets what?" "How will we make decisions?" "What do we value?" "How will we deal with difference?" Because we have shared problems, we yearn for order: for a method of addressing and solving those problems without killing each other. But we also want vision: a set of tropes or narratives that articulates our collective aspirations. Political rhetoric is the method by which this vision is established. It includes not only political philosophy but political speech meant to convince or persuade others to adopt a certain course of action, or a certain set of values, or a certain kind of judgment or practical wisdom (phronesis). Though political rhetoric has an unsavory reputation, it is central to our struggle to live a good life.

In a modern liberal democracy like the United States, political rhetoric is most often used to influence representative government. Often we think of political rhetoric as the hot air our elected officials blow out from time to time when they want to get elected or re-elected. I want to argue that political rhetoric is much more than this: it is the means by which rhetors present a vision of the collective Good. This vision of the collective Good is constituted by all kinds of public discourse: speeches, protest movements, songs, posters, commemorative events, blogs, editorials, debates, conversations, ads. Through these media, citizens use rhetorical strategies to influence a national agenda that ostensibly reflects our desires. In this class, we will work together to become rhetorical critics of this Human Barnyard of discourse.
To get a sense of the contemporary rhetorical landscape in American politics, we'll begin by analyzing presidential rhetoric, from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. Together we will select representative speeches to read, with scholarly commentary on presidential address and argument. From there we will move from the single rhetor speaking well to the collaborative symbolic act of protest. We will conclude with our own projects as rhetorical critics analyzing the artifacts of contemporary political rhetoric.

course outcomes

After taking this course, you will be able to

• Explain how rhetorical strategies advance contemporary political ideologies;
• Analyze, using various approaches in rhetorical criticism, political messages like presidential addresses, social movement rhetoric, and political arguments in deliberative publics;
• Collaborate with others to analyze a social movement and present your findings to the class, using visual and oral rhetoric;
• Use an effective scholarly writing process to produce a researched conference paper on rhetorical criticism, written with clear, correct, and compelling prose.

policies, expectations, and assignments

Reading

I urge you to master reflective, purposeful, critical, and most of all swift reading. Tom Miller, one of my mentors in graduate school, told me that I didn’t need to know everything about a text; I needed only to develop an attitude about it. Though I’m not sure exactly what that means, I think Tom was suggesting I learn to capture the rhetorical essence of what I read—the main argument, the evidence that supports it, the method of support and delivery, its relation to other texts, and the implications. This advice is most important for the secondary sources we read.

Primary sources, however, need more of our critical attention. Our task is to explore the rhetorical strategies of political rhetors as they seek to influence attitudes, induce action, and build communities. In order to build our rhetorical reading skills, we will need to collaborate on a rhetorical critic’s toolbox to develop concepts that will enhance our critical reading skills. You may want to consult Gerard Hauser’s Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (2nd ed), Gideon Burton’s online handbookSilva Rhetorica, or the various rhetoric encyclopedias (like The Encyclopedia of Rhetoric or Sourcebook on Rhetoric) as we develop our critical vocabulary.

Since this is a graduate seminar, I will assume you have read the texts assigned and I will call on students out of the blue to comment on the reading. (Please let me know via email at the beginning of the course if this approach makes you uncomfortable.) This means that you should keep notes and reflections on each day’s readings. I’d like you to bring your reading to class, including digital readings. (Please feel free to bring a laptop or tablet rather than a hardcopy.) If you feel like you’re getting lost, please visit me in my office and I’ll try to help.

Occasionally I will assign different readings to different groups so we can cover more ground. This practice, sometimes called “jigsaw reading,” gives us more breadth as a class. It also gives you the opportunity to teach your peers and synthesize disparate sources together. You’ll also notice from the schedule that occasionally I’ll assign online readings not found in any of our required texts.

Class Discussion

At this level I expect you will practice a scholar’s patience with the writers we read and with your fellow students. Let’s work together to create a “protopublic” of intelligent, good-natured scholars who combine rigor, humility, curiosity, deference, and good humor in its conversations. I invite you to be open and agreeably disagreeable, when that suits you. This ethical stance is even more important in a political rhetoric course in which we will surely encounter diverse opinions. As rhetoricians, we need to model the kind of open, rigorous, charitable dialogue we want to see in the various publics we belong to.

Please direct your comments to the entire class rather than just me; I tend to break eye contact if students direct too much of their comments exclusively to me. I also invite you to be comfortable with the fact that real-time oral comments are unpolished, provisional, and exploratory; they invite affirmation and challenge. Let’s try to stay focused. As scholars, we often tend to saddle tangents and ride them into the sunset.

We will also have online exchanges (more on that below). Digital venues tend to embolden the boorish, so I encourage you to practice good rhetorical sense to understand your audience and the effects of your arguments. I suggest making comments that are specific and generous.

Writing

Though your in-class comments don’t need to be polished, your writing should be. Even the less important informal papers and online posts should show that you are trying to develop a concise and compelling writing style. Craft your prose. Proofread your work. Keep up on your MLA style. Turn in your work on time. (I won’t accept informal or digital assignments late.) Always assume that someone will read your work or that you will be called upon to share your work with the class. If you feel you need extra help on your writing, please visit with me or form writing groups outside class.

When it comes to the craft of writing, think in two levels of effort. At level 1, you write informal responses based on the prompts I give you. Level 1 writing requires thought but not deliberate, processed craft. One draft, proofread before turned in or posted, is sufficient. Your personal impressions, thoughts, and opinions are welcome. Level 2 writing requires more effort: When you write your two analyses and your final paper, you’ll think about audience, purpose, and constraints. You’ll go through a rigorous invention process and draft your argument in consultation with me and/or with other students. You will spend time reading your own writing out loud and making your prose correct, clear, and compelling. You’ll write with the MLA Handbook (7th ed.) open. You’ll want to do your best work.

For your final project, you will write an 8-page paper on political rhetoric for a conference titled “Contemporary Political Rhetoric.” Your goal is to write an informative, compelling argument that you would deliver orally in around 15 minutes to a congregation of your peers. I will give you an assignment sheet with more details later.

Other Writing Assignments

This term you will write several works of rhetorical criticism: a rhetorical analysis of a presidential address, a critical reflection of some kind of personal political involvement, a final research paper on political rhetoric, and four critical performatives. I will provide you with assignment sheets for each of these projects. In each case you will act as a rhetorical critic bringing your understanding of rhetoric to an artifact in ways that teach us something about how contemporary political rhetoric works. To complete the critical reflection, you will need to participate in some kind of political activity/event during Spring term.

On most days we will begin our discussion of the texts with two or three critical performatives,by which I mean students reading their writing. During the semester each of you will write four500-word critical responses to the texts we read—two will be blog posts and two will be read to the class. At the beginning of class you’ll stand and read your response as naturally and informally as you wish. This is your moment to let your writing and thinking set the tone of our learning.

Let your interests guide these critical performatives. Since they’re short, you’ll need to narrow your focus significantly. If you want to respond to a primary text (like a presidential speech), choose one particular trope, paragraph, symbol, strategy, sentence, or other micro aspect of the text to analyze. If you want to respond to a secondary text (like The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control), you can apply principles from the text to an outside artifact. Finally, if you simply want to respond in a personal manner, describing how the reading influences your thinking about political rhetoric, you’re free to do so. Analyze deeply, purposefully, and creatively, keeping in mind your goal to illuminate how the text works rhetorically. Consider using rhetorical terms from the classical canon to help you in your analysis. (Hauser’s book will help you here.)

On the first day of class, I’ll assign which days you’ll either read your critical performative in class or post it on the blog.

Group Presentation

During our unit on social movements, you will collaborate with a small group of your peers to select readings for the day and give a class presentation. Some time at the beginning of the semester, I will assign you into groups and we’ll set the presentation schedule. I will also provide an assignment sheet with more details.

Civic Engagement Component

You will be required to participate for 5 hours in a civic engagement project outside class. Join an established, already-existing organization like a volunteer association, a political campaign, a relief effort, an awareness campaign, a nonprofit organization, a community service project, a social media project, or some other organized, identified, purposeful group whose mission is to solve a public problem we share. (Ecclesiastical service in the Church won't count for this project.) You can act as a participant, jumping right into the work of the group, or you can ask to be an observer.

When you complete your 5 hours, you’ll do two things: (1) write a rhetorical analysis explaining how the group you worked with uses symbolic action to persuade and foster identification among citizens, and (2) write a reflection about what you learned about political rhetoric from the experience.

The purpose of this project is two-fold (and here I’m borrowing language from “A Crucible Moment,” a study by the Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement for the Association of American Colleges and Universities):

• Civic Action: By doing this project, you’ll learn “the practice of working in a pluralistic society and world to improve the quality of people’s lives and the sustainability of the planet.” This work is inherently rhetorical.

• Civic Inquiry: You’ll use the tools of rhetorical criticism to explore “the civic dimensions and public consequences” of political action, “the impact of choices on different constituencies,” and the ongoing “civic intellectual debates” that constitute the rhetorical ecology of public life.

The Final

For the final you will be asked to read an excerpt from your final paper and reflect on the kind of rhetorical criticism you are performing. You must attend the final to pass the class, but the final will be pass/fail.

university policies

Disabilities Accommodations:If you have a disability, please consult the Disabilities webpage and let me know how I can accommodate you this semester.

Sexual Harassment: It’s against the law to discriminate against anyone at BYU based on sex; it’s also illegal to sexually harass anyone. This policy extends to faculty, students, and staff. If you observe or experience any sexual harassment, please come talk to me or contact the Equal Employment Office 24 hours a day at 367-5689. For more information on gender-based discrimination or harassment visitBYU’s website on the subject.

Academic Honesty . . . should go without saying. But just to be clear: Your ideas and prose should be your own, and when you use someone else’s work, you should properly acknowledge them in the text. I uphold BYU’s Honor Code, and anyone caught deliberately lifting someone else’s work will fail the assignment and possibly the course. Again, keep up on your MLA style. Use signal phrases that give credit to other writers’ ideas and prose, and practice blending your work and the work of others in a professional and persuasive way.

grading

Your final grade will be calculated like this:

• 4 Critical performatives (2 online and 2 in class): 160 points
• 4 online comments on critical performatives: 40 points
• Critical reflection/analysis of political involvement: 100 points
• Rhetorical criticism of presidential address: 200 points
• Group presentation on social movement: 200 points
• Final research paper on publics (due at the final): 300 points

I will provide more details about these assignments in class.

I promise to evaluate your work as carefully and generously as I can. That said, you should understand that I see “grading” as exactly that: determining a gradation in the quality of student performance. This process is inevitably subjective, but not arbitrary; I read student work in terms of what is comparatively “exceptional,” “excellent,” “very good,” “good,” “fair,” “poor,” and so on. In my view, grades do not tell you what kind of a person you are or what I personally think of you. Rather, they let you and the university know my assessment of your work. In my courses, an “A” means excellent—it denotes work that is smart, self-aware, critically sound, stylistically powerful, and mostly error-free.

If you ever feel that I have mistakenly and improperly evaluated your work, please let me know right away. I will be happy to re-evaluate your work, provided you attach a note explaining why you believe the original grade was in error. If you’d like me to suggest even more specific ways that you might improve your scholarly performance, stop by my office during office hours and we’ll chat.

I use the following scale to determine grades for the course:

A950-1000 pointsC+770-799D-600-629

A-900-949C730-769E0-599

B+870-899C-700-729

B830-869D+670-699

B-800-829D630-669

daily schedule—which might change as our needs change, so stay tuned. Reading Key: ER—Electronic Reserve; RR—Realm of Rhetoric; RAC: The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control.

Unit I: Presidential Rhetoric (rhetorical analysis)

T, Apr 24—Politics, political ideology, the realm of the political

Reading: ER Beasley “Between Touchstones”, Clark, Pew Research Center “Beyond Red and Blue: The PoliticalTypology”[form groups for presidents & presentations]

Th, Apr 26—What is rhetorical criticism?

Reading: ERWichelns, Black, Leff, Jasinski (in that order)

Jigsaw Reading: Group 1—Edwin Black’s “Gettysburg andSilence” (find in the databases Quarterly Journal of Speech 80, 1994); Group 2—Leff andMohrmann, “Lincoln at Cooper Union” (find in databases—QJS 60, 1974); Group 3—Kenneth Burke, “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s ‘Battle’” (find on ER)

T, May 1—Presidential rhetoric: Critical perspectives

Reading: ER Medhurst, Edwards, Zarefsky, Campbell and Jamieson

Jigsaw Reading (find on ER): Group 1—Domke and Coe, Group 2—Beasley “Gender and Presidents’ Rhetoric”; Group 3—Dorsey

Th, May 3—Presidential rhetoric: Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush

Reading: RR pp. vii-47; ER Goodnight & TBA; Reagan & Bush speeches (selected by Reagan group)

T, May 8—Presidential rhetoric:Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

Reading: RR pp. 48-105; ER Hartnett & Mercieca; Clinton & Bush speeches (selected by Clinton & Bush groups)

Th, May 10—Presidential rhetoric: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney??

Reading: RR pp. 106-162; Obama speeches (selected by Obama group)

Writing: Draft of rhetorical criticism

Unit II: Social Movements (group presentation)

T, May 15—Social Movement criticism

Reading: ER Cox & Foust, Simons, Stewart et al, Gladwell, Zaeske

Writing: rhetorical criticism of presidential address

Th, May 17—Social Movement theory

Reading: RACpp. 1-72

T, May 22—Social Movement theory

Reading: RACpp. 73-end

Th, May 24—No class: meet with Brian in groups

T, May 29—Group presentations

Unit V: What have we missed? And preparing the final paper

Th, May 31—TBA (publics theory, digital democracy, Supreme Court rulings, religion & public life, women rhetors, satire, rhetorical poetics, the rise of the Christian Right)

Reading:TBA

T, June 5—No class: meet with Brian

Reading: student and professional examples

Writing: Critical reflection of political engagement

Th, June 7—Peer review of final paper

June TBA—Final

Writing: Final conference paper