Transatlantic Rhetoric
Tom Wright - University of Sussex
What is ‘rhetoric’, and why was it so important for cultural and literary life during the long nineteenth-century in Britain and America? How can we begin to analyse public speaking as writing, and what is its relationship to culture and society?
This module addresses these questions by exploring the cultural history of persuasive public speech between the American Revolution and the turn of the twentieth century, and the role it played in the development of cultural forms. Each week we will look at a pair of one or more speeches from either side of the Atlantic, from across a range of genres including parliamentary oratory, radical political speechmaking, sermons, courtroom statements and comic lectures.
By training ourselves in the methods of rhetorical analysis we will develop an understanding of how to comprehend the meanings and craft of public speech. By placing speechmaking back into broader literary and cultural history, we will begin to see rhetoric and voice as central themes in the history of Anglo-American writing.
This module addresses these questions by exploring the cultural history of persuasive public speech between the American Revolution and the turn of the twentieth century, and the role it played in the development of cultural forms. Each week we will look at a pair of one or more speeches from either side of the Atlantic, from across a range of genres including parliamentary oratory, radical political speechmaking, sermons, courtroom statements and comic lectures.
By training ourselves in the methods of rhetorical analysis we will develop an understanding of how to comprehend the meanings and craft of public speech. By placing speechmaking back into broader literary and cultural history, we will begin to see rhetoric and voice as central themes in the history of Anglo-American writing.
| Transatlantic Rhetoric Syllabus |
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