Rhetorical Foundations

Catalog description

This course surveys major historical works both about literary and artistic representation (i.e., criticism) and how-to tracts teaching the art of persuasive speech and writing (i.e., rhetoric) from ancient Greece to early-modern England. Among questions to be considered are how definitions of figurative language and representation change from period to period and place to place. Over the centuries, some critics have considered artistic imitations to be dim reflections of the truths underlying appearances, and thus dangerous, whereas others have seen them as means for conveying the nature of reality or tools for teaching ethics. Authors include Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Horace, St. Augustine, Petrarch, Sidney, and Shakespeare. Offered most years in the fall.