| English 793B: Wayne Booth | Randy Harris, conductor, Spring 03 |
Course epitome
Wayne Booth is one of the most consistently interesting, but also one of the most consistently underestimated, critics of the latter 20th C. His driving theme is the rhetorical resources that encourage, obstruct, or refine agreement: and, therefore, belief, knowledge, and action. We will read a range of his books, engage his issues, and seek agreement about the value of his critical pluralism, not only for understanding texts, but also for understanding each other.
Required texts
Wayne Booth. The rhetoric of fiction. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983; ISBN 0-226-06558-8.
Wayne Booth. Modern dogma and the rhetoric of assent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974; ISBN 0-226-06572-3.
Wayne Booth. A rhetoric of irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974; ISBN 0-226-06553-7.
Wayne Booth. The company we keep: an ethics of fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989; ISBN 0-520-06210-8
On reserve
Rhetoric and pluralism: legacies of Wayne Booth. Edited by Frederick Antczak. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995; ISBN 0-8124-0643-3.
Wayne Booth. Now don't try to reason with me: essays and ironies for a credulous age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1970; ISBN 0-608-20598-2.
Gregory C. Clark. "Wayne Booth". Twentieth-century rhetorics and rhetoricians: critical studies and sources. Michael G. Moran and Michelle Ballif, editors. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000, pages 49-51; ISBN 0-313-30391-6.
Requirements
Essay 50% Course participation 50%
Peer assessment
15%
10%
25%
Booth links
Schedule: Click me
Presentation: Click me
Conductor email: Randy Harris