Please read the Covino article posted up on the D2L – under
Magic and Rhetoric.
Like Perelman, Covino is trying also a sort of rescue of
rhetoric, and as you read, I’d like you in particular to point out the
“rhetoric” that Covino wants to oppose: what are its features? And how is his
approach to rhetoric different from that? This sort of distinguishing of a
“new” rhetoric from an “old” was a central task of the generation of rhetorical
scholars in the mid-20th century – Covino would count as the tail
end of that – but of course the academic move itself is a kind of topic of the
old and the new, in which the new is better than the way we define the old.
Also, for Wednesday, please come ready to discuss an idea or
an issue about rhetoric that you have found interesting or engaging or
provocative. (Think in terms of concepts, terms, applications, etc.) Do some
writing about this, that you bring to class. We’ll use this to begin talking
about the final work of the semester.
Take a look at this website here, as well, for some varied definitions
of rhetoric – they might help direct your thinking:
