Sections offered SPRING 2024:
9907 |
ROBERT TERRILL |
MW 11:30am-12:45pm |
HU 111 |
HON-H 211 prerequisite: completion of the English composition requirement
“Rhetoric & Democracy: Taking Appearances Seriously”
We often assume that the most effective communication is clear, direct, and unambiguous. This is particularly true for the communication that happens in public, and therefore helps us to govern ourselves in a democracy. We tend to believe that public discourse should function as a transparent window that reveals the truth. For example, politicians almost always make some version of a promise to communicate in a way that is open and sincere, and they almost always accuse their opponents of hiding something.
But what if it is more complicated than that? What if it is difficult, or perhaps impossible, to communicate in the way that we believe that we should? What if the clarity and transparency to which we aspire actually are illusions? And what if we’re actually better off because we can’t achieve this ideal form of communication?
In this course we will explore these questions, and others. We will read about duality, duplicity, honesty, deception, role-playing, and authenticity, in works ranging from those produced by the ancient Greeks to those written by contemporary theorists. And we will examine case studies to determine if what we believe to be true about democratic discourse actually is true.
Student will write several papers of varying lengths, in which they both analyze the readings themselves and use the readings to analyze contemporary US public culture.