Autumn Term:

Week 1: Introduction to ancient rhetoric

(Weeks 2-5: theme 1: Rhetoric & Society)

Week 2: Rhetoric, education and public life

Week 3: Rhetoric in the classroom: how to write a speech (and why it matters)

Week 4: Rhetoric & politics: Saving democracy

Week 5: Rhetoric and the Empire (new forms of public speaking)

Week 6: Reading week, no class.

(Weeks 7-10 : theme 2: Praxis: Rhetoric in texts)

Week 7: Professional Speeches: Athens and Rome

Week 8: Rhetoric & Poetics (Homer, tragedy...)

Week 9: Rhetoric & Historiography

Week 10: Rhetoric and technical literature

Winter term

Week 1: Introduction : Men, theories and debates in the history of rhetoric

(Weeks 2-5: Theme 3: Rhetoric in question)

Week 2: Rhetoric, Philosophy and Sophistry in classical Athens

Week 3: Rhetoric, pro et contra: from Aristotle to Sextus Empiricus

Week 4: Pagans vs Christians (the enduring power of rhetoric)

Week 5: The evolution of argumentation theory and persuasion strategies

Week 6: Reading week, no class

(Weeks 7-10: Theme 4: Rhetorics, beyond the Classical)

Week 7: Biblical and semitic rhetoric

Week 8: Islamic rhetoric: Aristotle in Baghdad

Week 9: Rhetoric and modern approaches to argumentation and literary criticism (20th c.)

Week 10: Rhetoric & Politics (2): words, images, media in the 20th/ 21st c.