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Thesis
SUBJECT FORMATIONS IN UNIVERSITY RHETORIC PROGRAMS AND DEPARTMENTS
University of West Florida
Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida
2007
Abstract
"Subject Formation in University Rhetoric Programs and Departments" responds to the 2003 Alliance of Rhetoric Societies’ founding conference to better define the goals of rhetoric. By examining course descriptions within rhetoric programs/departments that have separated from English and communications departments, rhetoricians can better understand the subject-identities they produced. Presently, rhetoric asserts its independence within the university while the influence of neoliberal economy increases. These trends prompt the following question: are new rhetoric programs/departments helping define an academic study of rhetoric in the 21st century or following the dictates of neoliberalism's influence on the corporatized university? My investigation reveals that these programs offer a mixture—some courses promote what I call the neoliberal subject, while others, the rhetor subject. Drawing on neoliberal critics Chang, Harvey, and Brown, I define the neoliberal subject as a self-interested individual influenced by the market who seeks market-based solutions and assumes universal categories. Relying on Bender, Wellbery, Berlin, and Brown, I define the rhetor subject as being influenced by the social, seeking the common good, and assuming historicized categories. After determining the subject-identities revealed in these course descriptions, I conclude that because neoliberalism's influence the rhetor subjectivity is not an inevitable formation in new rhetoric programs/departments.
Details
- Title
- SUBJECT FORMATIONS IN UNIVERSITY RHETORIC PROGRAMS AND DEPARTMENTS
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Publisher
- University of West Florida
- Format
- text
- Identifiers
- 99380090835806600
- Academic Unit
- English
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Master of Arts (MA)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida