Beyond the Bar: Rhetorics of Pub/Public Culture

Catalog description

Offered fall and spring. Prereq., WRIT 101 or WRIT 201 . In 2015, the Montana Kaiman published an article titled, “Inebriation Nation: a History of Alcohol at UM.” The article notes, “The University of Montana’s relationship with alcohol has always been a complicated one” (Abigail Lynes). UM’s complicated history with alcohol is well documented through storied events such as the Aber Day Kegger and The Foresters’ Ball. As depicted in the Montana PBS documentary, Aber Day Kegger, “The idea of organizing and putting on the Aber Day Kegger originated in 1972 in a University of Montana sociology class, to help offset budget cuts. The students conceived a plan to hold a benefit kegger offering live music and unlimited beer. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. The first library benefit kegger was held in 1972 in lower Deer Creek, east of East Missoula.” Beyond campus, pub culture is seen globally as a hub of the community. Our inquiry will begin by looking globally at tavern or pub culture and eventually our scope will narrow to focus on our community in Missoula. This course is an introductory survey of ideas theorizing the relationships between rhetoric and pub/ public culture. The foundation of our study will be rooted in critical and analytic perspectives. Students will also learn how to engage in critical analysis of the relationships between rhetoric and pub/public culture, as well as related fields such as addition theory and cultural studies. Students will read theories/theorists including: Kenneth Burke, Mikhail Bakhtin, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Michel Foucault, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler, Brendan Behan, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, feminist studies, and postmodernism. This class is designed to provide students with the rhetorical knowledge and cultural perspectives necessary to be successful writers at the college-level and more specifically within…