Studies in the Rhetorics of Gender

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture) This course focuses on issues growing from the complex interaction of gender and language use, with a particular focus on written texts. Beginning with an overview of research on the relationship between gender and communicative behaviour, including feminist critiques of language, it considers such topics as the following: the rhetorics of women's movement and of contemporary men's movements; verbal (and, to a lesser extent, visual) constructions of masculinity and femininity in advertising and the media; innovative uses of language which resist and subvert prevailing conceptions of appropriate communicative behaviour; and the rhetoric of public debates over issues such as abortion and reproductive technologies, in which gender is a central factor. Restrictions: Students may not hold credit for this course and WGS-3153. Requisite Courses: Any section of Academic Writing or exemption from the writing requirement and completion of 24 credit hours [prerequisite(s)].