"Suppose the houses are composed of ourselves"
- Wallace Stevens, "An Ordinary Evening In New Haven"

Instructor:

Dr. Jane Sutton

Department:

Communication Arts and Sciences

Office:

Room 204, Information Sciences and Technology Center

Email:

jss@psu.edu

Phone:

717-771-4160

Fax:

717-771-8404

Education:

• B.A., 1974 Western State College, Gunnison, CO; Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
• M.A., 1980 Western State College, Gunnison, CO
• Ph.D., 1984 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Office Hours:

• M and F 11:00-12:00
• W 2:00-3:00
• by appointment

Why take this course, CAS 201 GH Rhetorical Theory?

Because we live in rhetoric.

Aristotle portrays rhetoric as an oikodomêmatôn. The Greek word oikodomêmatôn combines the idea of house (oikon) with the verbal form of building. Just as we refer to the structure of a house in terms of bricks and mortar so too, we may refer to the house of speech in terms of rectilinear “elements” and “principles.” These elements and principles constituting the house of speech are, Aristotle says, different from the common term “speech.” The elements and principles of speech, chief of which is the principle of authority, are primarily associated with rhetoric as a site of agency, a civic space.

Speech or rhetoric is our invisible cosmos, our home.

We say this in ordinary speech (whatever that may be) all the time. We do it in the legal, political, educational, religious, social, and cultural domains. When we wish to assemble and speak (up), we do so in houses: the courthouse, the House of Representatives, the schoolhouse, the House of God, and so on.

Might we need to know the house in which we speak?

How is it designed? Why this design? Who designed it? Is it large enough and spacious enough for the 21st Century?

What kind of actions and criticizing can (not) and does (not) occur?

These are some questions that frame a course of rhetoric.

CAS Major Blue Book Description

CAS Minor Blue Book Description

Required Course:

CAS 100

Refresher Link:

Communication Arts and Sciences Help Desk

Research Skills Links:

LIAS Writing Aids
LIAS Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Course May Be Utilized To Fulfill Requirements For The Following:

• General Education requirements-Humanities
• CAS major
• CAS minor
• Electives in other degree programs
• 4 LAS degree--Theory

Room:

30 Main Class Room Building

Meeting Time:

M W F 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM

Readings:

Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg, ed. The Rhetorical Tradition : Readings from  Classical Times to the Present. 2 ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2001.

Theory:

Hauser, Gerard A. Introduction to Rhetorical Theory. 2 ed. Prospect Heights,  IL:Waveland Press, 2002.