Nathalia King
CC 305, nking@reed.edu
Full course for one semester. This course consists of an examination of classical rhetoric ("the art of persuasion") and the ways in which rhetorical systems promulgated theories about the functions of memory, imagination, and language in relation to the composition and reception of literary texts of all genres. Part of the goal is to arrive at sophisticated and historically informed definitions of concepts such as mimesis, copia, and the sublime. Attention will also be paid to the theories and functions of literary tropes, particularly metaphor, metonymy, irony, and allegory. Theoretical texts will be read in conjunction with literary texts, enabling students to use and critique various theories in their own strategies for close reading. Theorists include Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, Loyola, Burke, Kant, Freud, Jakobson and Lacan. The literary texts include Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare's sonnets, and James Joyce's Dubliners.
"Language can also be compared with a sheet of paper: thought is the front and the sound the back; one cannot cut the front without cutting the back at the same time; likewise in language, one can neither divide sound from thought nor thought from sound." (Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, 1916)