Rhetorical approach to reading and writing argumentative discourse. Close reading of selected texts; written themes developed from class discussion and analysis of rhetorical strategies. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

This course takes life as its object of study. Specifically, we will seek to untangle, or tangle with, the enduring link between life and activity. We will interrogate how life has been defined by activity, and thus become the paradigmatic model for it. How does our understanding of life inform imperatives of productivity, action, progress as well as resistance that structure our present moment of late-capitalism, neoliberalism and environmental crisis? To approach this question, we will read authors across historical periods and disciplines — including philosophy, history of science, science and technology studies, media studies, black studies, disability studies and queer theory — who have sought to reimagine what counts as meaningful activity, which is to say the limits of life, and different ways of living. The conceptual inquiry of this course will be rooted in sustained practices of reading and writing. The texts presented throughout this semester will serve as recurring sites for close-reading, interpretive analysis, concise and effective writing, critical thinking and collective discussion. To this end, although some texts will be dense and difficult, we will foreground slow, attentive reading and writing exercises.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills