The Classics Department of Augustana College World Literature 218 (L-Suffix) The Classical Art of Persuasion Spring Term: March - May, 1999

Goals

Assignments

Grading

Texts

Class Times

Instructor

Goals: The Main Idea and the Outcomes.

The main idea of the course is that we will be more liberally educated if we know at least these three things about persuasion:

Classical formulations, especially the ones that people persist in finding useful, right up to right now
Genuine ìreal worldî case studies of persuasion -- from the classical period --

The connection between a philosophy of life and its ways of persuasion.

The outcomes of the course (what one can do afterward that one probably couldnít do before) are the ability to:

Identify forms of classical rhetoric when they turn up in a speech
Create (short!) speeches that use procedures of classical rhetoric
Discuss the relationship between the rhetoric of a classical speech and its three settings

In the community history (experience remembered or imagined)
In the speakerís philosophy of life
In the audienceís value-system

Grading

Three quizzes, 5% each
Prepared attendance at general sessions, 5%
Prepared attendance at discussion sessions, 5%
Mid-term exam, 25%
Final exam, 25%
Individual project, 25%

The Schedule of Readings, Topics, and Tests for Spring! 1999

March 8 - 12:

The change from instinctive to studied rhetoric: The Greek new world of politics, lawsuits, relativist sophists, and an intellectual revolution.

Handouts to read: Speeches of Nestor, Odysseus, and Ajax (Homer, Iliad), Queen Artemisia (Herodotus), Periclesí Funeral Oration (Thucydides)

March 15 - 19: Sophist rhetoric and philosophy in action.

Handouts to read: the Debate over Mitylene and the Dialogue on Melos (Thucydides)

Friday: Quick Quiz #1 (March 19)

March 22 - 26: The Quarrel between Debate and Dialogue (I)

Reading: Plato, Symposium

March 29 - 31: The Quarrel between Debate and Dialogue (II)

Reading: Plato, Phaedrus

Wednesday: Quick Quiz #2 (March 31)

April 7 - 9: Review and exam

Friday: Midterm (April 9)

April 12 - 16: The Background, Stage Two:

Theory lends a hand to both idealism and pragmatism.

Reading: Selections from Aristotleís Art of Rhetoric.

April 19 - 23: Intermission.

World Lit 218 lends Aristotle a hand: Making our outline of outlines.

April 26 - 30: The Background, Stage Three.

Roman Ideals versus Civil Unrest

Reading: Cicero vs. Catalina

Friday: Quick Quiz #3 (April 30)

May 3 -7: Roman Ideals and Politics as Usual

Readings: Cicero defends Archias and Caelius

May 10 - 14: Retrospective and Variation on Audience, Speaker, Situation

May 17: (Monday) Final exam, 8:00 A-Gasp-M.

May 20: (Thursday) Individual projects due -- in Banksís office by Noon.

Class Meeting Times: The Logistics of the Triad

B Period	Monday	Wednesday	Friday
9:30 - 10:00	Latin	World Lit	Greek
10:00 - 10:45	All	All	All

Greek and Latin only: One more weekly session with me, time to be arranged

Textbooks

World Literature Texts (which Greek and Latin registrants read, too)

Classical Author Title ISBN Translator/Editor Publisher

Plato Great Dialogues of Plato 0-451-62827-6 Warmington & Rouse Mentor

Plato Phaedrus & Letters 7 & 8 0-14-044024-0 Walter Hamilton Penguin

Aristotle The Art of Rhetoric 0-14-044510-2 Hugh Lawson-Tancred Penguin

Cicero Selected Political Speeches 0-14-044214-6 Michael Grant Penguin

Additional texts for GK 218/318

Classical Author Title ISBN Translator/Editor Publisher

Plato Apology 0-92952-456-X G. Rose Bryn Mawr Commentaries

Abridged Greek-English Lexicon 0-19-910207-4 Liddell & Scott Oxford University Press

Additional texts for LT 218/318

Classical Author	Title	ISBN	Translator/Editor	Publisher
Cicero	Cicero's First Catilinarian Oration	0-86516-341-3	Karl Frerichs	Bolchazy-Carducci
	A Latin Dictionary -- e.g., Cassellís	0-02013-340-5	D. P. Simpson	Macmillan

Definitions:

Prepared attendance. Prepared attendance means to be in class unless you have a good excuse, and to show a reasonable preparation of the day's assignment. Each Unprepared or Absence (after the first) lowers the grade in this realm by half a letter -- from A to A-, then to B+, then to B, and so on. If I ever think your preparation hasn't been adequate, I'll let you know, either with a kind, discrete, but obviously regretful Tsk-Tsk in class, or privately. If you had to miss class, or unavoidably could not prepare, please let me know why.

Individual Projects

World Literature. In the weekly discussion sections, everyone will gradually build three 2-to-3-page projects, then integrate them to constitute the term paper. The projects are

        (1) the labelling of a non-classical speech with classical terminology
        (2) the creation of a speech modelled on speeches weíve read
        (3) the creation of a certain kind of speech (a suasoria) using rhetorical techniques weíve met

Each week in our discussion session weíll try to learn from and help each other. Each week everyone will write a brief (page or so) report or draft that will evolve into the completed project.

Greek: The project is: all of your translation for the term, revised, polished, and typed/printed.

Latin: The project is: all of your translation for the term, revised, polished, and typed/printed.

Connecting:

Instructor: Thomas Banks, Professor of Classics

Office: Old Main 126
Office hours: 2:00 - 3:00 daily, or just drop in, or make an appointment for your best time
To T. Banks's Home Page (and campus schedule)
To T. Banks by e-mail: clbanks@augustana.edu
By voice (Office): 309-794-7240
By voice (Home): 309-764-5099
By fax (Old Main): 309-794-7702
By post:

Thomas R. Banks

Department of Classics

639 - 38th Street

Augustana College

Rock Island, IL 61201-2296

***********
Date this synopsis of WL 218 was last modified: May 4, 1998