Thomas P. Miller     Office: Modern Languages 380     Phone: 621-3553      Instructor's homepage  

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The Aberdeen Philosophical Society                     

English 696D     18th and 19th Century Rhetorical Traditions

We will work from the assumption that histories are to be written and not just read. We will spend at least half of the course working together on the histories that you write. To help you with that, we will read historical surveys, case studies of 18th and 19th century texts and contexts, and theoretical reflections on rhetoric, politics and ethics.

We will also examine the expansion of literacy that established the modern public sphere, the resultant development of the essay as a blurred genre, and the institutionalization of literature and composition in American colleges.

We will begin our discussions by setting out from the context sketched out in 

"will English departments become the classics departments of the twenty-first century?"

You may also find it useful to define a couple of key terms.