In today's information and communication society, rhetoric¿as a powerful instrument of persuasive discourse¿gains special interest in the most varied fields of our political, social, artistic, and scientific activity. But we must not understand rhetoric as a merely formal matter. As Aristotle himself had already advanced, rhetoric is closely intertwined, in a plot difficult to perceive, with social structures and with the most varied aspects of culture, without which it is nothing more than an empty exercise.
This course presents a study of the constitution of rhetoric from a multidisciplinary perspective, taking into consideration linguistics, the Sociology of Language, and argumentation theories. The forms of messages and statements in the current social context will be studied, as well as the ways of constructing common meanings and power relations.
1. Reinterpreting classical Rhetoric.
2. Rhetoric and political discourse.
3. Rhetoric and literary discourse.
4. Rhetoric and scientific discourse.
5. Rhetoric and fake news: media and social networks.