University of Waterloo
Department of English
ENGL 104
Rhetoric in Popular Culture
Winter 2021
T/Th 10:00-10:45 am, Online
Instructor Information
Instructor: Christopher Cameron
Virtual Office Hours: T/Th 11:00 am-12:00 pm, or by appointment
Email: c25cameron@uwaterloo.ca
Course Description
In this course, we will examine the role of rhetoric in our contemporary popular culture through the examination of texts and artefacts from that culture. These texts will include literature, drama, comic book, film, fashion, television, video game, and music. Students will be asked to examine these artefacts critically and share their findings with the class. Throughout the semester, we shall learn about different rhetorical lenses through which to view the artefacts and analyze how an artefact persuades or influences its audience to think, believe, or behave a certain way. Though we will begin working through these analyses together, by the end of the course, students will be expected to perform a rhetorical analysis of an artefact on their own.
Course Goals and Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, successful students should be able to:
- Identify and describe various theories and approaches to rhetoric
- Understand what popular culture is, how it works, and some of its purposes.
- Apply rhetorical theories to artefacts of popular culture
- Be familiar with and able to apply proper rhetorical terminology
- Think critically and communicate effectively about rhetoric and popular culture
- Develop your ability to write in academic contexts
- Engage with your peers through discussion and collaboration
Required Texts
Both texts are available through the bookstore. The first is our core textbook. The second is one of the artefacts we will work with.
- Rhetoric in Popular Culture by Barry Brummett, 5th Edition, Sage Publishing.
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
- Some of our texts are available for free on YouTube while others are not. Some texts are available through a paid service in addition to YouTube. For example, if you want to play Among Us, you will have to purchase the video game, but it is acceptable to watch a video of gameplay on YouTube for the purposes of this course. A filmed staging of Hamilton is available to watch on Disney+, but if you do not have access to that service and do not want to pay for it, you may listen to the soundtrack on YouTube for free. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is available on Netflix, but if you do not have access to a Netflix account, you may rent the movie on YouTube for less than $5. If you are unable to access our texts in any way due to geographic constraints, internet issues, or any other issue related to the pandemic, please let me know and we shall arrange for an alternate text for you to work with.
Course Requirements and Assessment
| Assessment | Date of Evaluation | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Writing Conferences | Week of Feb 8-12, and Week of Mar 29-Apr 2 | 20% (5% for the 1st and 15% for the 2nd) |
| Lecture Responses | Weekly | 10% |
| Midterm Presentation Proposal | Feb 4 | 10% |
| Midterm Presentation | Week of Feb 22-26 | 30% |
| Final Essay | April 22nd | 30% |
Writing Conferences
You will attend two virtual 1-on-1 writing conferences with me during the course. We will meet once before your midterm presentation and again before your final essay. Conferences are 15 minutes in length and are meant to give you an opportunity to receive more detailed feedback based on your proposal and address any questions or concerns you might have before submitting the larger project. You are expected to attend and be prepared for all writing conferences.
Your second conference will also serve as your proposal for your final project. Therefore, you will be expected to discuss the following with me: you will choose any text you like so long as it falls within the definition of pop culture as defined by our course. You will explain what the text is, pose some question you intend to pursue about how the text tries to influence the way the audience or reader thinks or behaves, and explain the critical perspective you intend to work with for your analysis in a larger paper. We will then discuss feedback on your idea and best strategies for moving forward to the final essay.
Lecture Responses
By 5 pm on every Friday, you will post a short (250 word maximum) response to the lectures from the week. You will include two things you have learned from the lectures this week and two things you do not understand or would like to know more about. This will help me tailor the content of our limited virtual meetings to address your concerns as well as give you an opportunity to interact with your peers in the context of the course.
Midterm Presentation Proposal
For this assignment, as well as the midterm presentation, you may work alone or choose to team up with one or two classmates. You will choose one of the texts on the syllabus. In class, we will be discussing each text from a certain perspective. Your task for this presentation is to perform an analysis of the text from a perspective that is different from the one we have done in class. For example, we will cover Hamilton from a Dramatist perspective, so you may perform a feminist analysis (or any type of analysis other than Dramatist) for your presentation. In a short proposal, 250-500 words, you will tell me which text you will be working with, which critical lens you will examine the text with and why, and you will pose a research question that your presentation will eventually answer. Think of the research question as the bit of curiosity that sparks your study. Groups will receive a single grade unless I have been advised of circumstances where such a grade would not be appropriate. Each group member will be asked to complete a one-page survey that describes each group member’s role and their contribution to the project.
Midterm Presentation
Building off the topic you proposed in your midterm presentation proposal, you will deliver a 10–15-minute presentation. You have the option to deliver the presentation live virtually or to prerecord the presentation and submit the file. Your task for this presentation is to perform an analysis of the text from a perspective that is different from the one we have done in class. You will be expected to make a claim about how the text attempts to influence the audience to think or behave in a certain way and support that claim with evidence from the text analyzed from your chosen critical perspective. If you chose to team up for the midterm project, groups will receive a single grade unless I have been advised of circumstances where such a grade would not be appropriate.
Final Essay
Building off the topic in your proposal, you will write a 1500–2000-word essay in which you examine your text from a particular rhetorical perspective. You must make some sort of claim about how the text attempts to influence the way the audience or reader thinks or behaves. This essay is meant to be your final evaluation instead of a final exam, so be sure to demonstrate that you are able to perform a rhetorical analysis of a given text using the concepts and terminology we have learned in the course.
| Date | Topic | Reading | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 12 | Intro/What is Rhetoric? | None | |
| Jan 14 | What is Rhetoric? | Brummett Ch1 | |
| Jan 19 | What is Pop Culture? | Brummett Ch2 | |
| Jan 21 | How to Perform an Analysis | Brummett Ch 3 | |
| Jan 26 | Short Story Example | ||
| Jan 28 | A Narrative/Dramatist Perspective | Brummett pp. 190-198 | |
| Feb 2 | Hamilton: An American Musical (Play) | Watch/Listen on YouTube | |
| Feb 4 | A Gender Perspective | Brummett pp. 169-176 | Midterm Proposals Due |
| Feb 9 | Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (comic book) | Read | Writing Conference Week |
| Feb 11 | A Class Perspective | Brummett pp. 158-168 | |
| Feb 23 | Presentations | Midterm Presentation Week | |
| Feb 25 | Presentations | ||
| Mar 2 | James Bond: Untraditional Tradition (fashion) | View Images | |
| Mar 4 | A Race Perspective | Brummett pp. 150-157 | |
| Mar 9 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (film) | Watch | |
| Mar 11 | A Visual Perspective | Brummett pp. 184-189. | |
| Mar 18 | Survivor: China (TV) | Watch on YouTube | |
| Mar 23 | Media-Centred Perspectives | Brummett pp. 199-211 | |
| Mar 25 | Video Game: Among Us | Play/Watch on YouTube | |
| Mar 30 | A Musical Perspective | Writing Conference Week | |
| Apr 1 | BTS/Childish Gambino: Music as Metacultural Critique (Music Video) | Watch | |
| Apr 6 | Bringing it All Together | ||
| Apr 8 | Final Object Text TBA. We will discuss examples from the final essay proposals. | ||
| Apr 13 | Final Object Text TBA. We will discuss examples from the final essay proposals. |
Late Work
Assignments submitted late shall be penalized 2% per day.
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Cross-listed course
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