Cfp: Annual Conference, Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric, University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, May 28-30, 2011.

The Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric (CSSR) invites members to submit proposals for papers to be presented at its annual conference, to be held in conjunction with Congress 2011 at the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick from May 28-30, 2011.

Special Session: “Rhetoric and Eloquence in the Renaissance” (Chair: Claude La Charité, Université du Québec à Rimouski)

This special session will be a joint session held with the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies (CSRS). Scholars are invited to propose papers on rhetoric and eloquence in the Renaissance. However, scholars are invited to interpret this session topic creatively, addressing issues related to Renaissance rhetoric, rhetoric in/of (the) Renaissance, and renaissance(s) of rhetoric. The session will be an opportunity to explore the conceptual as well as historical connection between Renaissance and rhetoric, and between ideas of rhetoric and ideas of renaissance. Figures such as the Gallic Hercules are invoked to characterize Henri III’s rhetorical performance and the rhetorical tradition is reconsidered in the cultural context of early-modern Europe (from a search for verbal abundance to the elaboration of the appropriate style for the Papal administration), inviting explorations of the rhetorical theory and practice in the Renaissance. On the other hand, this joint session will be an opportunity to examine renaissances in rhetoric, as an art, discipline, and theory that has known many high and low points. Possible topics may include reformulations of rhetoric, redefinition of its scope, object, and even medium, adaptation to new fields, rise of new disciplines and integration of new theoretical frameworks (as in queer rhetoric).

Open Sessions

Papers concerning more general aspects of rhetoric are also welcome: topics may include (but are not limited to) rhetorical theory, rhetorical criticism, history of rhetoric, rhetoric in popular culture, media communication, discourse analysis, rhetoric of political and social discourse, pedagogy of commmunication, rhetoric and the media, sociolinguistics, semiotics, professional and technical communication.

For more information on the society, visit: http://www.cssr-scer.ca/.
Visit the conference website here: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~rcarruth/conference.html.