COMN 359 - Political Rhetoric

2022-2023 Catalog Year

Credit(s): 4
Lecture: 4
Non-Lecture: 0
Increasingly, American culture is divided among the hyper-partisan and the thoroughly apathetic. This course does not aim to restore a nostalgic image of the political-engaged citizen but rather to help students understand the distinction between Politics and politics, to explore their intersections in American culture, and to recognize the centrality of politics-if not Politics-to our daily lives. While the course explores many ways that speeches, public argument, and mediated texts work to shape collective identity, it focuses specifically on current political campaigns at the local, regional, and, in Presidential election years, national levels. The course explores assumptions about how campaigns have “changed” in the late 20th and 21st centuries, the various rhetorical strategies through which campaigns are taken up as “genuine,” and the role that campaign finance plays in the “democratic” process. The course also looks at politics in other spheres of public life including fashion and comedy.

Prerequisite(s): COMN 100, and either COMN 230 or COMN 231