ENGLISH 597A: ETHNIC RHETORICS Fall 2009 Instructor: Dr. Xiaoye You Meeting time: Tuesday 9:05A - 12:05P Location: 047 Burrowes CONTACT INFORMATION Office: 118 Burrowes Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:20P or by appointment Telephone: 863-0595 Email: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION Taking a postcolonial and comparative perspective, this course examines rhetorical traditions that have grown within certain socio-cultural contexts and thus provides a means for understanding the overall experiences of selected communities. We will read both primary and secondary texts on rhetorical theory and practice in the Greek, Chinese, African American, Latino, and Asian American Traditions. Special attention will be paid to voices historically marginalized in those traditions. We conclude the course by discussing the implications of ethnic rhetorics for communication and composition in an age of transnational cultural flows. Course assignments include weekly readings, weekly talking points, a border-crossing activity, a conference proposal, a conference paper, and an end-of-semester presentation. REQUIRED BOOKS AND READINGS Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, 2nd ed. Trans. George A. Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2007. Cintron, Ralph. Angels’ Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday. Beacon Press, 1997. Confucius. The Analects of Confucius. Trans. Arthur Waley. Vintage, 1989. Howard-Pitney, David. The African American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America. Temple University Press, 2005. Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Trans. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. Vintage, 1997. Mao, LuMing and Morris Young (Eds). Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2009. Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2003. You, Xiaoye. Writing in the Devil’s Tongue: A History of English Composition in China. Southern Illinois University Press, 2010. Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2003. WEEKLY TALKING POINTS Each week, you will make notes on our readings for that date. These should be meaningful notes to you, so they do not need to be especially formal. Notes can include questions, extensions, rebuttals, or the beginnings of writing ideas. Bring your notes to class with you, and be prepared to use these notes to talk from during class. Talking points should be about one page in length. They do not need to be in a formal, essayist style. Notes can be sentence or paragraph length statements. Be sure to include any page numbers you are discussing so that you can reference passages during our discussions.BORDER-CROSSING ACTIVITY In the middle of the semester, you will be introduced to a selected group of college students in China. You will be invited to assess their fieldwork reports (written as magazine articles) together with their teachers. Then you exchange your evaluations with the teachers and also share them with the students. You are encouraged to comment on every report critically and independently online. It is hoped that you will gain a firsthand understanding of rhetoric, communication, and composition in a transnational context. ARTICLE AND CONFERENCE At the end of the semester, you should turn in a proposal and a conference-length paper (10 pages minimum) in response to a Call for Proposals (CFP) for the 14th Biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN in May 2010. You are encouraged to examine a topic in a less studied rhetorical tradition or to examine a topic through a postcolonial or a comparative lens. Certainly, instead of writing a conference paper, you can take the opportunity to compose an essay for publication or a section of your dissertation. You are encouraged to discuss your topic with me at any stage of your writing. Prepare a ten-minute presentation from this paper for our end-of-semester mini-conference. COURSE POLICIES The usual policies apply. I reserve the right to lower attendance points for absences over a reasonable number (say, two absences). I will also turn down requests to turn in assignments late. GRADES Attendance: 10% Talking points: 20% Border-crossing activity: 20% Conference proposal: 10% Conference paper: 30% Presentation: 10% SCHEDULE: Introduction to Ethnic Rhetorics August 25: “Contrastive Rhetoric” (Matalene) “Black Women Writers and the Trouble with Ethos (Pittman) Issues in Postcolonial Studies September 1: Postcolonialism (Young) Greek Rhetoric September 8: Phaedrus (Plato) Encomium to Helen (Gorgias) “Encomium to Helen as Advertisement” (Pfau) September 15: On Rhetoric (Aristotle) Chinese Rhetoric September 22: Tao Te Ching (Lao Tsu) “Conceptualization of Yan and Ming Bian: The School of Daoism” (Lu) September 29: Analects (Confucius, Introduction and Chapter 1-10) “Conceptualization of Yan and Ming Bian: The School of Confucianism” (Lu)Issues in Comparative Rhetoric October 6: “Reflective Encounters” (Mao) “The Way, Multimodality of Ritual Symbols, and Social Change” (You) “Recent Advances in Comparative Rhetoric” (Hum & Lyon) “Introduction [to Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics]” (Lipson) “Why Do the Rulers Listen to the Wild Theories of Speech-Makers?” (Lyon) Border-crossing activity starts African American Rhetoric October 13: The African American Jeremiad (Howard-Pitney) “Preface [to Rhetoric and Ethnicity]” (Gilyard) October 20: The African American Jeremiad (Howard-Pitney) “Discourses of Black Nationalism” (Gilyard) Latino/a Rhetoric October 27: Angels’ Town (Cintron) November 3: Angels’ Town (Cintron) “The Chicano Codex” (Baca) Border-crossing activity concludes Asian American Rhetoric November 10: Representations (Mao and Young) November 17: Representations (Mao and Young) Conference proposal for RSA 2010 due Ethnic Rhetorics, Communication, and Composition December 1: “Justifying My Position in Your Terms” (Liu) “In(ter)ventions of Global Democracy” (Ryder) Writing in the Devil’s Tongue (You, Chapter 1, 2) December 8: Presentations December 15: Term papers dueEthnic Rhetorics: A Selected Bibliography African American Rhetoric Gilyard, Keith. Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence. Wayne State UP, 1991. Gilyard, Keith. “Discourses of Black Nationalism.” Keith Gilyard and Anissa Wardi, eds. African American Literature. Longman, 2004.