English 760: Seminar in Rhetoric: Speech and Power on the Internet

John Zuern Spring 2002 M 3:30-6:00 Kuykendall 411

Office: Kuykendall 219 Office Phone: 956-3019 Email: zuern@hawaii.edu Office Hours: F 9:00 - 11:00 and 1:00 - 3:00 and by appointment

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Objectives The question of how speech and writing are implicated in exercises of power and violence continues to occupy thinkers in the fields of rhetoric, cultural studies, political science, and legal theory. In this seminar, we will situate the relationship between speech and power within the field of computer-mediated communication: how is language related to privilege, persuasion, force, and violence in environments such as the World Wide Web, email, chat, and MOOs (text-based formats for synchronous communication)? Class discussions of scholarship in this area, a range of online sources, and examples that emerge from student research will aim at finding ways to employ rhetorical analysis to understand the complex social and political dynamics of online discourse. We will discuss problems such as identifying audiences in an increasingly networked and disseminated social space; assessing how technical and social factors unite to condition audiences' reception of online messages; establishing criteria for the interpretation and evaluation of electronic discourse; and accounting for the role of affect in understanding, assent, and—potentially—coercion. What constitutes "speech" on the Internet? How do the interactive dimensions of some electronic media reconfigure the rhetorical situation as it is described in classical rhetorical theory? How do the patterns of dissemination of electronic documents, potentially global in scope but restricted by a number of socioeconomic factors, determine the ability of these documents to appeal to (and construct) particular audiences? How can we conceive of argumentation carried out in a non-linear hypertext medium? How should online speech be regulated? Are there (or should there be) limits to First Amendment rights for speech on the Internet? This seminar will combine an exploration of the theoretical questions concerning the relation of language and power with practical applications of computer-mediated communication. Throughout the semester, students will gain hands-on experience with all the media we discuss. Some seminars will be conducted as MOO discussions, and student work will be exchanged and reviewed in electronic formats. Requirements No prior experience with computers or electronic media is required, but students should have an active email account and will be expected to participate in the class discussion list. Semester grades will be based on responses to readings in the form of written précis (20%), two in-class presentations (30%), a written project proposal, and a term paper of 20-25 pages (50%).

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Materials Required Text: Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge, 1997, and a course packet. You will need to have access to the Internet via a recent browser equipped with plug-ins for Flash and Real Audio. The Critique Lab is available for your use, but the schedule of open lab times is limited. You will also need an active email account. Online Resources Assignments Assignments are due on the day on which they appear in the schedule. All assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade.  Semester grades will be based on responses to readings in the form of 3 written précis (20%), two in-class presentations (30%), a written project proposal, and a term paper of 20-25 pages or equivalent (50%). Final papers may be submitted in hypertext formats. Policy You are expected to attend this seminar regularly and on time. If circumstances arise that make it difficult for you to come to class or to complete your assigned work, please inform me immediately. Don't wait until the end of the semester, when it will be harder to make accommodations.You must complete all assigned work to pass the class. I will give incompletes only in cases of medical or family emergencies, for which I will require written documentation. I also expect you to adhere to the Interim Policy for Responsible Computing and Network Access and the Critique Lab Policies.

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Schedule (subject to change)  January 14 Introduction to the course. January 21 Holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day January 28 Reading Plato: Gorgias http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/plato/gorgias/gorgias.html Nietzsche: On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense http://www.geocities.com/thenietzschechannel/tls.htm Foucault: "Two Lectures" (packet) Sterling: "A Short History of the Internet" http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/scale/nethistory.html Amerika: Grammatron http://www.grammatron.com/ Sher: Welcome to Securityland http://adaweb.walkerart.org/project/secure/corridor/sec1.html Assignment Spend some time on the Internet, reflecting on your own experience of navigating the various kinds of resources now available online. Find at least one example of an Internet phenomenon that you can discuss from a rhetorical, political, and/or ethical perspective. February 4 Reading Ong: "Writing Structures Consciousness" from Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (packet) Hall: "Encoding/Decoding" from Culture, Media, Language (packet) Ess: "What’s Culture Got to Do with It? Cultural Collisions in the Electronic Global Village, Creative Interferences, and the Rise of Culturally-Mediated Computing" (Ess) February 11 Reading Austin: selected lectures from How to Do Things with Words (packet) Matsuda: "Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim's Story" from Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment (packet) Butler: Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative Introduction - Chapter 2 Southern Poverty Law Center http://www.splcenter.org/ Anti-Defamation League http://www.adl.org/ Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation http://www.glaad.org/org/index.html mattshepherd.org http://www.mattshepard.org/ February 18 Holiday: Presidents' Day February 25 Reading Bourdieu: "On Symbolic Power" from Language and Symbolic Power (packet) Greenawalt: "General Principles of Free Speech Adjudication in the United States and Canada" from Fighting Words: Individuals, Communities, and Liberties of Speech (packet) Butler: Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Davidson: "Web of Hate" http://www.salon.com/news/1998/10/16newsa.html ADL: "Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online: Internet Bigotry, Extremism and Violence" http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/poisoning_toc.html March 4 Reading Lyotard: selections from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (packet) Olson and Butler: "Changing the Subject: Judith Butler's Politics of Radical Resignification" (packet) Muckelbauer and Hawhee: "Posthuman Rhetorics: 'It's the Future, Pikul'" (packet) Brooke: "Forgetting to be (Post)Human: Media and Memory in a Kairotic Age" (packet) March 11 Reading Stewart, Shields, and Sen: "Diversity in On-Line Discussions: A Study of Cultural and Gender Differences in Listservs" (Ess) Wheeler: "New Technologies, Old Culture: A Look at Women, Gender, and the Internet in Kuwait" (Ess) Gajjala and Mamidipudi: "Cyberfeminism, Technology, and International 'Development'" (packet) Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) http://rawa.false.net/index.html March 18 Reading Jones: “Understanding Micropolis and Compunity” (Ess) Becker and Wehner: "Electronic Networks and Civil Society: Reflections on Structural Changes in the Public Sphere" (Ess) Poster: "Cyberdemocracy: Internet as Public Sphere?" from What's the Matter with the Internet? (packet) Harmon: "On-Line Trail to an Off-Line Killing" from The New York Times (packet) Man's Online Murder Confession from Wired http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,12014,00.html Katz: Murder and Morality on the Web from Wired http://www.wired.com/news/topstories/0,1287,12267,00.html Katz: An Online Moral Dilemma from Wired http://www.wired.com/news/topstories/0,1287,12468,00.html Assignment Prepare a two-page proposal for your term paper and include a working bibliography. March 25 Spring Break April 1 Reading Aarseth, "Ruling the Reader: The Politics of Interactivity" from Cybertext: Prspectives on Ergodic Literature (packet) Dibble: "A Rape in Cyberspace" from Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture (packet) Turkle, "Aspects of the Self" from Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (packet) Haynes: ". . . - - - . . . // Women, Computers, and the Language of Distress" http://www.utdallas.edu/pretext/PT2.1/haynes/ April 8 Reading Kolb: "Scholarly Hypertext: Self-Represented Complexity" (packet) Bernstein, "Hypertext Gardens" http://www.eastgate.com/garden/ April 15 panel presentations April 22 Reading Keniston: "Language, Power, and Software" (Ess) Hongladarom: "Global Culture, Local Cultures, and the Internet: The Thai Example" (Ess) Cisler et al: "The Internet and Indigenous Groups" http://www.cs.org/publications/CSQ/csqinternet.html A Line in the Sand http://www.hanksville.org/sand/ Native Web http://www.nativeweb.org/ Hobson: "Growing the Indigenous Australian Internet" http://www.alia.org.au/incite/2001/06/koorinet.html April 29 Reading Selfe: "Working for Change" from Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention (packet) Digital Divide Network "Content and the Digital Divide: What Do People Want?" http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/ May 6 last day to submit final papers.