Rhetorical Occasions: Essays on Humans and the Humanities

by Michael Bérubé

A nationally known scholar, essayist, and public advocate for the humanities, Michael Berube has a rapier wit and a singular talent for parsing complex philosophical, theoretical, and political questions. Rhetorical Occasions collects twenty-four of his major essays and reviews, plus a sampling of entries on literary theory and contemporary culture from his award-winning weblog. Selected to showcase the range of public writing available to scholars, the essays are grouped into five topical sections: the Sokal hoax and its effects on the humanities; cosmopolitanism, American studies, and cultural studies; daily academic life inside and outside the classroom; the events of September 11, 2001, and their political aftermath; and the potential discursive and tonal range of academic blog writing. In lively and entertaining prose, Berube offers a wide array of interventions into matters academic and nonacademic. By example and illustration, he reminds readers that the humanities remain central to our understanding of what it means to be human.

Genres: Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Michael Bérubé is the director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and the Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Penn State University.

Reviews

[Aaron Wickstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again... somehow. Another round with the book that will always win the coveted "Worst Cover" award.