2022-2023 / LROM0130-1

Questions of rhetoric and semiology

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

 Master in ancient and modern languages and literatures (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in French and Romance languages and literatures : French as a foreign language (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in modern languages and literatures : German, Dutch and English (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in linguistics (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in modern languages and literatures : general (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in French and Romance languages and literatures : general (120 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in modern languages and literatures : German, Dutch and English (60 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in modern languages and literatures : general (60 ECTS)5 crédits 
 Master in French and Romance languages and literatures : general (60 ECTS)5 crédits 

Lecturer

Enzo D'Armenio, François Provenzano

Substitute(s)

Sémir Badir

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Rhetoric is the multi-secular discipline that deals with the techniques of argumentative discourse and, more generally, with the formal processes (enunciative, figurative, etc.) that make a text effective with a particular audience. This is a discipline with which students of Romance Studies, and more generally of Philosophy and Humanities, are not very familiar during their undergraduate years. Semiotics is present from the beginning of the Romanist's curriculum, but it is associated with linguistics. This course is an opportunity to situate it in a different order of problems.

After an introduction to the history and current status of rhetoric and semiology in the area of Humanities, , the course will focus on a specific problematic. This year, the course will focus on aspectuality, modality and gestuality, the three dimensions from which a subject is constituted in discourse, in writing as well as in speech and in images. The first part of the course will be dedicated to the history of these notions in language sciences. In the second part, case studies will be developed.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

By the end of the course, students will be able to :
- know the main historical and conceptual steps of the development of rhetoric and semiology among Humanities and literary studies;
- know and contextualize the main linguistic, semiotic and rhetoric theories of aspects, modalities and discourse gestures;
- read and discuss a hard theoretical piece of work;
- produce an original and sharp case study on a literary or non-literary cultural production.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Students should have studied linguistics or semiotics in some form, prior to taking this course. The instructor will frequently refer to aspects of teaching points in semiotics or linguistics that he articulated during the first cycle.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course will at first consist in a series of lectures, and then the instructor will make assignments to students for seminar-type presentations.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face only.

Recommended or required readings

In progress

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( open-ended questions )

Written work / report


Additional information:

A written paper is due on the first day of the exam session.

This paper will be dedicated to the analysis of aspects, modalities and gestures in a polysemiotic text (to be chosen from a selection that will be presented at the end of the course).

A collective evaluation will be scheduled during the session.

Students' participation in the course will also be taken into account in the evaluation.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

The course will take place on Fridays, 2nd Term, from 3 to 5 PM, classroom A2/4/12.
Resumption : Friday, February 10, 2023.

Students who are interested in this course can contact the teachers by September 2021 to ask their questions.

Contacts

Teachers

Sémir BADIR, Associate professor

Enzo D'ARMENIO, Post-doc Fellow

Département de Langues et littératures françaises et romanes
Service de Sciences du langage et rhétorique
Place Cockerill, 3-5, bât. A2, 4000 Liège.
Tél. 04 366 56 45
Mail : 

enzo.darmenio@uliege.be

Semir.Badir@uliege.be

Secretary
Ariane Nusgens : 04 366 56 50 

Association of one or more MOOCs