Rhetorics of the Body

Catalog description

This course will investigate theoretical and rhetorical approaches to the body. We will examine the idea of embodiment and its relationship to language, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. In particular, the ways in which different bodies have been historically erased, controlled, and/or policed. This course will also consider the topoi, commonplaces, and rhetorical affordances of diverse bodies. We will interrogate the normative assumptions about (dis)ability by exploring the “body” as a site of rhetorical analysis and resistance. With a special focus on Disability Studies (disability rhetorics), course texts will draw on work by feminist and queer rhetoricians and scholars of rhetoric who have sought to reclaim bodies that have been omitted from the rhetorical canon.