2023-2024 / 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

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 quotation and interdiscursivity, i.e. all the phenomena that arise from the presence of a second discourse within a first discourse. These phenomena touch on very old issues, such as imitation, or more recent ones, such as plagiarism or texts generated by artificial intelligence. They concern both the strictly verbal aspects of discourse and its visual or, more broadly, media dimensions. This thematic part of the course will be based on a list of compulsory readings, which will be presented in class.

As a preparation to the final examination, and on request from the students, the last session of the course will be dedicated to the topic of verbal interactions.

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 interdiscursivity;
- 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:

In progress.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

The course will take place on Fridays, 2nd Term, from 3 to 5 PM, classroom A2/4/12.
Resumption : Friday, February 9, 2024.

Students who are interested in this course can contact the teachers by September 2023 to ask their questions.

Contacts

Teachers

Enzo D'ARMENIO, Post-doc Fellow

François PROVENZANO, Professor

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

Francois.Provenzano@uliege.be

Surgery hours: Wednesdays, from 9.30 to 11, office A2/4/4

Secretary
Ariane Nusgens : 04 366 56 50 

Association of one or more MOOCs