Pathos Schedule

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Date In Class For Next Time

Part I: Aristotelian Pathos

W Jan 22 Introductions to each other and the course. Truthiness, post-truth, the problematics of pathos and logos. Pathos as the ground for logos in Aristotle and in contemporary neuroscience. Complete First Day Class Survey. Introduce yourself on the discussion board, including a description of the last thing that moved you in a memorable way (a speech, a meme, a song, scene from a film or book, an image, any encounter…)
M Jan 27 Discuss pathetic appeals together. Group exercise for practice. Then discuss with your group the pathetic appeals in the artifacts you introduced, identifying what it is that moves you, stirs a feeling in you. Read “I Went to Mexico” and “The Thousands of Children Who Go to Immigration Court Alone” (be sure to watch the embedded videos on that last one)
W Jan 29 Discuss pathetic appeals in readings/videos. Go over reading discussion posts. Read Aristotle, Book II, 1-17. Discussion Post 1, on Aristotle, due by class time on Monday.
M Feb 3 Post 1 due. Discuss Aristotle. Some notes on Aristotle Find an image that you find moving, and post it to the discussion board under Images. Be ready to show and discuss it in class on Wed.
W Feb 5  Pathetic appeals in visual analysis practice. Discuss visual analysis assignment. Read Nussbaum “Aristotle on Emotions and Rational Persuasion.” Watch Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN, Emma Gonzales’s “We Call BS” speech, and Obama’s gun violence press conference. Post 2 on Nussbaum due Monday.
M Feb 10 Post 2 due. Discuss Nussbaum + analyze videos (pathetic appeals, feelings stirred, behavior inspired) Examples of visual analysis assignment from previous semesters. Find an image to analyze for visual analysis assignment. (Possible source: 100 of the most Influential Images of All Time. Another one: Berlin Wall and it’s fall photos)

Part II: Sociality of Affect

W Feb 12 Workshop visual analysis on your selected image. Q&A about assignment. Explanation of canvas peer review. Complete visual analysis and upload it for peer review **by 9 am on Monday**
M Feb 17 Peer Review Version Due (9 am). Peer review visual analysis. Revise and resubmit final visual analysis by class time on Wednesday. Read Hawhee “Rhetoric’s Sensorium.” (no post)
W Feb 19 Final Visual analysis due. Discuss Hawhee (exercise). Read Gould, “Introduction: Why Emotion?” Post 3 due Mon on Gould.
M Feb 24 Post 3 due. Discuss Gould: affective ontology and emotional habitus. Exercise. Read Rice, “The New ‘New’: Making a Case for Critical Affect Studies.” Post 4 due Wed.
W Feb 26 Post 4 due. Discuss Rice: critical affect studies. Exercise. Quotation. Read Brennan, “Introduction” to The Transmission of Affect. Post 5 due Mon
M Mar 2 Post 5 due. Discuss Brennan: the transpersonal affective intensities. Individual exercise. Read Ahmed, “Introduction” to Cultural Politics of Emotion, “Feel Your Way.” Post 6 due Wed
W Mar 4 Post 6 due. Discuss Ahmed: the sociality of emotions. Exercise. Read Ahmed “Affective Economies.” Post 7 due Monday. If you’re revising visual analysis, it’s due Monday. Revisions must include at the top of the paper, a paragraph explaining what aspects of the essay you revised and how, referring specifically to the feedback I left on your initial submission.
M Mar 9 Post 7 due. Visual analysis revisions due. Discuss Ahmed: the stickiness of signs, the effects and affects of hate speech and the politics of fear. Exercise. Ahmed writes that “[T]he sideways movement between objects, which works to stick objects together as signs of threat, is shaped by multiple histories. The movement between signs does not have its origin in the psyche, but is a trace of how histories remain alive in the present” (126). This piece about the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death and the sticky associations of the hoodie, is a great example.

Read Burke “Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle.” Post 8 on Burke due Wednesday.

Part III: Dealing With Pathological Texts

W Mar 11 Post 8 due. Announcement from representative of Fund for the Public Interest.Discuss Burke: pathetic aspects of identification, scapegoating, projection, consolidation of ‘the enemy,’ oppositional structuring. Exercise. (+ sliding) Discuss analysis of a pathological text assignment Have a fabulous break. Be looking for a text to analyze. And if you’re a RHE major, consider applying to the RHE Honors Program and the Trimble Prize for Excellence in Writing!
M Mar 16 Spring break
W Mar 18 Spring Break Read this Time Magazine article and 4 short pieces from A Citizen’s Guide to Fake News:

  • “What is Fake News”
  • “A Brief History of Fake News”
  • “The Danger of Fake News Inflaming or Suppressing Social Conflict”
  • “Why We Fall for Fake News”
M Mar 23 Discuss fake news and analysis assignment. Peek at this Times piece, plus read about Parkland conspiracy theories, and Rice, “Pathologia.”  Post 9 on Rice due on Wed. Decide on a text to analyze.
W Mar 25 Post 9 due. Discuss Rice: eruptions of pathological texts in rhetoric’s “sensorium.” (Uses of anger, fear, paranoia in fake news, conspiracy theories, hate speech and other injurious eruptions). ReadWhat is The Great Replacement” and watch two videos:

Upload a link to the pathological text you’ll analyze on our Canvas Discussion Board by Monday. Include a quick description of why (according to our definition) you consider it “pathological” and of the feelings it stirs in you.

M Mar 30 Discuss readings/videos. Workshop injurious aspects of artifacts. Read McIntire, Yourish, and Buchanan’s “In Trump’s Twitter Feed: Conspiracy Mongers, Racist, and Spies,” Amanda Robb’s “Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal” on Pizzagate, and Richardson’s “There’s Something Going On” (also in Files on Canvas)
W Apr 1 Discuss readings. Q&A about text analysis. Read Uscinski’s “If Trump’s Rhetoric” and Eric Reid’s Why Colin Kaepernick and I Decided to Take a Knee, and watch Alex Jones suggest that taking a knee supports “white genocide.” Work on text analysis
M Apr 6 OSU Program Review. Complete a draft of text analysis
W Apr 8 OSU Program Review Upload text analysis to canvas for peer review **by 9am Monday.**
M Apr 13 Peer review version due. Peer review analysis. Revise and resubmit analysis by class time on Wednesday. Read Ahmed: conclusion. (no post)
W Apr 15 Final Textual analysis due. Discuss Ahmed: dissent, detaching stuck emotions/bodies, pathetic appeals that undo violent appropriations. Videos: How Parkland Teens Deal with Bullies; Response to Taco Tammy; Watch Yair Rosenberg on how to fight anti-semetic trolls and read more about how he trolls the trolls. Read about angry optimism of hero students, and organized mockery in response to alt-right. Read Davies, “How Feelings Took Over the World.” Post 10 on Davies due Monday.
M Apr 20 Post 10 due. Discuss Davies + dissent and detaching stuck emotions, cont. Write up the “description of rhetorical goals” for your counterargument and prepare to workshop it in class on Wed.
W Apr 22 Description of rhetorical goals workshop; meet with me; sign up for presentation dates Work on counterargument
M Apr 27 Work on counterarguments; meet with me Prepare your counterargument for workshopping on Wed.
W Apr 29 Workshop counterarguments; meet with me Upload counterargument to canvas for peer review **by 9am Wednesday.
M May 4 Peer review version due. Peer review counteraguments **Revise and resubmit counterargument by class time on Monday.
W May 6 Final Counterargument due. Revisions of textual analysis due. Share counterargument thoughts and debrief

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