Class Rethoric

Rooted in the historical and political traditions of Ancient Greece and grounded in its theoretical foundations, the study of Rhetoric re-emerges today as a key lens through which to understand its purposes, nature, and practices within contemporary Politics and Culture — contexts increasingly shaped by the mediation of an insatiable communication system and by an expanded and fragmented Polis. As both theory and practice, science and technique, Rhetoric is explored through its constitutive duality: on the one hand, as the study of the conditions and mechanisms of persuasion; on the other, as oratory — the practice of persuading an audience through speeches, argumentations, narratives and imagery. The course invites students to cultivate an analytical sensibility toward “the power of the scintillating phrase” (Pasternak), which in modernity became a “napalm power” (Dorothy Day) and has been described as a “virus that reached a permanent situation in the host” (William Burroughs).

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1. Fundamentals and Objectives of Rhetoric Rhetoric, Athenian Democracy and Public Space Rhetoric as Art and Techné Plato's Rhetoric: Psychagogy Rhetoric according to Aristotle. the persuasion   2. The nature and architecture of speech The organization of speech The New Rhetoric   3. Speeches that have marked history cases. Metaphor and story telling   4. Contemporary speech practices: Rhetoric, today Discourse as a mechanism of influence and combat in public space The mediatization. Sound bites and punch lines Spin doctors and speech writing: the new logographers   5. The Oratory. Discourse as performance Pragmatic and behavioral dimensions of discursive practices   6. Analysis of Cases and Practical Projects

1) Adoption of strategies for active student participation in the classroom context, through joint analysis and group discussion of a "case study" (e.g., an example of speech, a communication crisis situation or journalistic treatment). 2) Programming special sessions with experts in the classroom context, namely politicians or journalists, allowing students to interact freely and directly with them.

ARISTÓTELES, Retórica, Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda, Lisboa, 1998 BARTHES, Roland, “A Retórica Antiga. Memorandum”, in A Aventura Semiológica, Lisboa, Edições 70, 1987 CARRILHO, Manuel Maria, org., Retórica e Comunicação, Lisboa, Edições Asa, 1994. PERELMAN, Chaim, O Império Retórico, Porto, Edições Asa, 1993 PLATÃO, Górgias, Lisboa, Edições 70, 1991. PLATÃO, Fedro, Lisboa, Guimarães Editores, 1994. REBOUL, Olivier, Introdução à Retórica, São Paulo, Martins Fontes, 2004. THOMSON, Oliver, Uma História da Propaganda, Lisboa, Temas & Debates, 2020.