Discourse Analysis: Learning how to read texts

63-237-18

Lecturer: Dr. Galia Yanoshevsky

Course type: Elective

School year: 2016-17 Year: 2nd /3rd year Semester: 1st, (Wednesday, 14:00-15:30)

Credits: 1 annual credit

Lecturer's email:

Reception hours: Wednesday 2-3 p.m.,

Office: North Campus, Kort building 1004, 4th floor, room 402

A. Course objectives and purposes:

This course overviews basic research methods used in the rhetorical analysis of different types of text: written and oral, verbal and visual. Students will learn and exercise various frameworks and research instruments used in contemporary trends in rhetorical criticism. Among the course’s topics are: rhetorical situations, rhetorical act, argumentative dimensions of discourse, argumentative structure of texts, persuasion through character (ethos), appeal to emotions (pathos), figurative language, rhetorical fallacies and so on.

B. Course Requirements and Final Grading*

Reading assignments: 2 reading assignments, each 10% (altogether 20%). A question will be posted each week prior to the class pertaining to an article. Each question will be considered as a "reading assignment". Each student will have to read all articles, but to answer two questions only during the semester.

Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions and contribute arguments of their own based on their reading.

Exam – 80%

Note: presence is mandatory. More than three absences will result in automatic course cancellation.

C. Course Topics and Program

Introduction

Why analyze a text? Genres and types of text.

Class requirements.

Section 1

– Classical rhetoric: the epidictic and the political speech, audience and intertext

Read:

Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book 1, ch. 3,9, the epideictic [online]

185 ARI r.R (108036)

Perelman, Chaim, 1982. The Realm of Rhetoric, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, London. Ch. 2 “Argumentation, Speaker and Audience” pp. 9-20. [תדפיס]

808 PER r (14241) – in the English library OR 168 PER r (14241) – in the Philosophy library

Perelman, Chaim & Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1961 (1958). The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, London, "The Universal Audience" pp. 31-34.

168 PER n (493815) - in the English library

Example:

- Martin Luther King Jr., "The Quest for Peace and Justice" 11.12.1964

- Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize "A Call to Action" 9.10.2009

Section 2

– Judicial Discourse, Cinematographical Discourse, Argument Structure and Audience

Argument schemes and types

Read:

Doury, Marianne, Argument Schemes (lecture).

Govier, Trudy 1997. A Practial Study of Argument, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth and ITP, pp. 65-95.

N/A

Fallacies and rhetorical moves

Walton, Douglas, 1992, The Place of Emotion in Argument, Penn State University, Pennsylvania. Ch. 6, " Argumentum ad hominem", pp. 191-223. [[מאגר

168 WAL p (349797) – in the French library

Watch:

12 Angry Men (Fonda, 1957).

Opinion article and Toulmin's argument scheme

Read:

Toulmin, Stephen, 2003 (1958), The Uses of Argument, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Ch. 3, 'The Layout of Arguments", pp. 87-100.

160 TOU u (228361) – in the philosophy library

Example:

Dov Tschernichovsky, "The Costs of Death", Ha'aretz, 22 November 2001 (Transl. from Hebrew).

Background (optional reading):

2008 Danblon, Emmanuelle and Galia Yanoshevsky, "Ethics versus Rhetoric: When an Ethical Principle Blocks the Regulation of the Universal Audience," in Understanding Argumentation, Work in Progress, edited by F.H. van Eemeren, David Cratis Williams, and Igor Z. Zagar, 227-233 (Amsterdam: Sic/Sat-Rosenberg).

N/A

Section 3

– Image Construction, Image Repair, Image Construction in Interaction, Audience Fragmentation

Ethos

Read:

Kinneavy, James L., “From Aristotle to Madison Square”, in: Baumlin S. James and Tita French Baumlin, 1994. Ethos. Rhetorical and Critical Theory, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

N/A

Image construction and autobiography

Read:

Philippe Lejeune, The autobiographical Pact, [1975] offprint (Sourasky central library).

920.002 LEJ o (109911) – in the Literature library

Cheng, Martha S., Forthcoming, "The Sliding Scales of Repentance: Understanding Variation in Political Apologies for Infidelity", Journal of Argumentation in Context.

The Sliding Scales of Repentance. Online access

Example:

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Confessions [online, pages will be indicated in class].

Seduction and audience

Read:

Perelman, Chaim & Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1961 (1958). The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, London, "Arguing before a single audience pp. 35-40.

168 PER n (493815) - in the English library

Scannell, Paddy, 2001, "Authenticity and Experience", Discourse Studies 2001, 3:405-411.

Journal & Ejournal (384891)

Example:

Election campaigns [on Moodle]

Building of the Self on the Internet (guest lecture)

Read:

Rojek, Chris, Presumed Intimacy: Para-social Relationships in Media, Society & Celebrity Culture, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2016. Ch. 6, "The Accentuation of Personality", pp. 73-94.

N/A

Baym, Nancy K., Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2015. Ch. 5, "New Relationships, New Selves? Identity and Identity cues, pp. 118-139.

N/A

Example:

Social Networks, Gaming

Section 4

– Principles of Letter Writing and Trust

Read:

Anonymous, "The principles of letter writing", pp. 496-502 in: Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg, The Rhetorical Tradition, Boston/ NY : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.

808.009 RHE 2001 (1144154) – in the English library

Example:

Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Gutenberg Project, letter 2, from Heloise to Abelard.

Read:

Yanoshevsky, Galia, 2010. "Building a Trustful Audience in Scam Letters", Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Argumentation of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, June 29-July 2 2011, edited by Frans H. van Eemeren, Bart Garssen, David Godden, Gordon Mitchell, Sic/Sat, 2011 (on CD).

Proceedings of the 7th Conference. Online access

Example:

Scam Letters

Section 5

– Visual Rhetoric – the Power of Memes

Huntington, Heidi E., " Subversive Memes: Internet Memes as a Form of Visual Rhetoric", Selected Papers of Internet Research 14.0, 2013. 4 pages.

Selected Papers of Internet Research. Online access

Section 6

– Doxa, the Ideal Reader and Self-Help Books

Amossy, Ruth, 2002. “How to Do Things with Doxa: Toward an Analysis of Argumentation in Discourse”, Poetics Today 23:3 Fall, pp. 465-487.

Journal in the Literature library & Ejournal (384891)

Eco, Umberto 1981. The Role of the Reader, London: Hutchinson [במאגר]

801.9 ECO r (7196) – in the English library

Cheng, Martha S. "Undoing Common Ground: Argumentation in Self-Help Books" June 6, 2007. OSSA Conference Archive. Paper 25.

OSSA Conference Archive. Online access

Section 7

– Polemics

Example:

Liberty of expression and Charlie Hebdo

Reading will be announced in class.

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