ENG 4815 - Fall 2025 - McMartin

This course explores the historical and rhetorical construction of the public sphere and pays particular attention to how texts mediate participation in public discourse. Beginning with the advent of the printing press and extending to the rise of digital publics, the course examines how communicative technologies have shaped who counts as “the public” and who has access to text production and circulation.

Drawing on foundational and contemporary theories of the public sphere—from Jürgen Habermas to Nancy Fraser and Michael Warner—we will analyze how publics are constituted rhetorically and how text functions as a vehicle for visibility, belonging, and debate. We will also engage with the work of scholars such as Laurie Gries to consider how circulation and uptake shape rhetorical impact across media ecologies.