Rhetoric and Propaganda

Catalog description

Examines classical and modern theories of rhetoric, understood as effective, ethical means of persuasion, and the ways in which propaganda departs from these means. Enables the student to apply theories of rhetoric and propaganda to examples of presidential rhetoric, Nazi and Soviet propaganda, and other examples of persuasive writing. Includes the study of visual rhetoric with students constructing criteria for identifying visual propaganda, and studying the complex relationship, historically and in the present, between propaganda, democracy, advertising, and mass media.