History and Theory of Rhetoric

Catalog description

Students will learn the historical development of rhetoric from origins in ancient Greece to the digital age of the 21st century. Students will study Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero from the classical period, the further development of rhetoric during the medieval period, especially as was influenced by Cicero, the emergence of humanism and Aristotelean scholasticism in the Renaissance, the enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries that was influenced by John Locke and empiricism, the development of modern rhetoric in the 20th century to include influential thinkers such as Kenneth Burke, I.A. Richards, and Marshall McLuhan. Prerequisite: ENG501, ENG510.