Seminar 12: Encountering Rhetorical Worlds: A Seminar in Comparative Rhetoric

Leaders: Ralph Cintron (University of Illinois Chicago), Tarez Graban (Florida State University) and Shiben Banerji (University of California, Berkeley)

This seminar explores methods and problems of comparative rhetoric across media, practices,
and languages. Seminarians may take up key concepts from one language/rhetorical tradition
and complicate their work with another (e.g., how might the Arabic/Islamic concept of ṣulḥ, or
the Yoruba concept of àṣẹ enable us to reconsider conflict resolution, agency, cosmology, or
world-making?). Further, seminarians may be interested in how material artifacts, such as textile
designs, function across rhetorical traditions, or the rhetoric of place (the Ming Forbidden City as
a mapping of temporal/celestial relations, and so on). Those who have never done formal work
in comparative rhetoric are welcome. We presume that rhetoric is world-making and that
rhetorical traditions can communicate across worlds.

The seminar will consist of presentations/discussions by RSA members with considerable
experience with different rhetorical traditions and their cosmologies. Groups will be
formed according to the initial proposals and collectively explore rhetorical concepts embedded
in different rhetorical traditions. The seminar may figuratively or literally assemble an
encyclopedia of rhetorical concepts.

Possible topics:

• What is rhetoric, and what are rhetorical traditions?
• What might/should be the goals of comparing rhetorical traditions?
• How should/can animist rhetorical traditions (landscapes, the dead, animals, plants, and
  so on as speakers) and non-animist traditions engage each other?
• What can a reading of different origin stories regarding the first moment of language tell
  us about distinctive rhetorical traditions?
• What are some trade routes (literal and metaphorical) among and between rhetorical
  traditions—such as Greco-Roman, European, Chinese, African languages, indigenous
  languages of the Americas, Pacific Islander languages, and so on?
• What political discourses and/or ethical systems have emerged in different rhetorical
  traditions?
• What might the examination of themes—such as truth, resonance, apology, and so on—across rhetorical traditions reveal?

There will be no A/V equipment available in this seminar. The seminar leaders encourage participants to bring charged devices with their preferred hardware and software pre-loaded, especially for any participants who have accessibility needs. You should indicate any accessibility needs on your registration form.