Rhetorical Occasions

A nationally known scholar essayist and public advocate for the humanities Michael Bérubé has a rapier wit and a singular talent for parsing complex philosophical theoretical and political questions. <i>Rhetorical Occasions</i> 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.<br/><br/>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 Bérubé 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.