For the next Rhetoric Reading Group meeting, we’ll be discussing the first half of Carlo Michelstaedter’s Persuasion and Rhetoric. We will start with the first section (“On Persuasion” – pgs. 1-58) for the September meeting, and continue with the second section (“On Rhetoric” – pgs. 59-101) for the October meeting (date TBD). Although used copies of the book are fairly cheap online, it is also available for free as a digital copy through WSU Libraries.
From Yale University Press:
“This translation of Carlo Michelstaedter’s Persuasion and Rhetoric brings the powerful and original work of a seminal cultural figure to English-language readers for the first time. Ostensibly a commentary on Plato’s and Aristotle’s relation to the pre-Socratic philosophers, Michelstaedter’s deeply personal book is an extraordinary rhetorical feat that reflects the author’s struggle to make sense of modern life. This edition includes an introduction discussing his life and work, an extensive bibliography, notes to introduce each chapter, and critical notes illuminating the text.
Within hours of completing Persuasion and Rhetoric, his doctoral thesis, 23-year-old Michelstaedter shot himself to death. The text he left behind has proved to be one of the most trenchant and influential studies in modern rhetoric, a work that develops Nietzschean themes and anticipates the conclusions of, among others, Martin Heidegger. Publication of the book in English is an event of great magnitude for students of Italian philosophy, rhetoric, and literature as well as the culture of Mitteleuropa.”
Time: 3:00PM
Date: Friday, 9/30/2011
Place: Motor City Brewing Works
The final Rhetoric Reading Group Meeting of the summer session will take place from 3-6 PM, Friday August 19, at Mike Ristich’s house. Directions and further details are available via the Wayne State Rhetoric Society Facebook group. Our readings for the meeting will be two essays, Jacques Ranciere’s “Ten Theses on Politics” and Timothy Brennan’s “Running and Dodging: The Rhetoric of Doubleness in Contemporary Theory.”
The first Rhetoric Reading Group meeting of the Winter 2011 semester will take place at the Bronx Bar (2nd + Prentis) at 3:00 PM, Friday January 28. Our text for the meeting will be Bernard Stiegler’s For a New Critique of Political Economy.
The WSRS hopes to see you all there!
The first Rhetoric Reading Group meeting of the academic year, and the first to be sponsored by the new Wayne State Rhetoric Society, will take place at 3:30 PM, Friday, October 08. The location will be The Motor City Brewing Works (470 W. Canfield Street). Our text will be Nancy S Struever’s Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity (U of Chicago P, 2009).
The second Rhetoric Reading Group Meeting of the Fall semester will take place at 3:30 PM, Friday, November 13. The location will be The Motor City Brewing Works (470 W. Canfield Street). Our text will be Bryan Garsten’s Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment (Harvard UP, 2006).
The first Rhetoric Reading Group Meeting of the Fall semester will take place at 3:30 PM, Friday, October 9. The location will be The Motor City Brewing Works (470 W. Canfield Street). Our text will be Collin Gifford Brooke’s Lingua Fracta: Toward a Rhetoric of New Media (Hampton Press, 2009).
The next Rhetoric Reading Group Meeting of the Summer will take place at 1:30 PM, Friday, August 28. The location will be The Motor City Brewing Works (470 W. Canfield Street). Our text will be Kenneth Burke’s Attitudes Toward History (University of California Press, 1983).
