Literature vs. PWR?

Carolyn Braganca — ENG Lit ’15

At Elon, professional writing and rhetoric (PWR) and literature are two separate concentrations within the English major. When you look at the required courses for each concentration, the two appear completely different. After all, what could visual rhetoric and poetry possibly have in common?

As it turns out, they’re not as different as you may think.

I actually briefly considered concentrating on PWR when I initially chose my major. However, I fell prey to the same assumption I think many people have: rhetoric is dry language while literature is pretty language. I thought PWR made one think while literature made one feel, and I was interested in the latter.

As it turns out, I wasn’t entirely wrong—I wasn’t correct, but I wasn’t wrong either. Rhetoric does make you think, but it also makes you feel. Likewise, literature does make you feel, but it also makes you think. Literature uses rhetoric to tell a story because all stories have some sort of purpose or ever purposes.

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” are meant to inform, to educate readers about issues or perspectives of issues of which they are not aware. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” however, are intended mainly to entertain. Each of these writers chose a specific format, specific organization, and specific language to accomplish their purpose and goals. Although, within the English major at Elon University, you would study these texts in the literature concentration, these literary stories can also be studied from a PWR perspective as well.

An iconic political slogan--three guesses whose it is.

An iconic political slogan–three guesses whose it is.

Once you link rhetoric with stories, you can link it with almost any professional field you can imagine. Films tell use rhetoric to tell stories, as does photography, marketing and advertising, branding, and politicians. We live in a world and in a society in which people—both individuals and groups—are trying to tell their stories, and rhetoric helps them do so.

It is easy to compartmentalize academic fields of study, but in reality the lines are significantly more blurred. Although PWR, literature, creative writing, and teacher licensure concentrations approach stories from different perspectives, we all deal with stories. However, stories are not even exclusive to the English department. History, international studies, biology, art, anthropology, journalism, marketing, etc.—all of these majors and more all center on telling stories, and they all use their own rhetoric.

Stories connect people, so don’t let anyone tell you the English major is useless.

Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood are celebrities who endorse Gucci's Guilty perfume.

Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood are celebrities who endorse Gucci’s Guilty perfume.

Karlie Kloss (model) and Mario Testino (photographer) are both well-known in the fashion industry for creating highly visually appealing images.

Karlie Kloss (model) and Mario Testino (photographer) are both well-known in the fashion industry for creating highly visually appealing images.

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2 Comments

  1. Posted February 21, 2015 at 8:14 pm | Permalink

    Great post, Carolyn! As someone who is doing a double concentration in PWR and Literature, I can definitely attest to finding a lot of (sometimes surprising) similarities between the two.

    I really like how you said, “Literature uses rhetoric to tell a story because all stories have some sort of purpose” because I think this is something that gets overlooked. As you know, we’re always asking ourselves in Lit classes what the message, point, or intention of a literary work is at its core. I personally think that writers definitely use rhetoric to tell their stories with a purpose.

  2. Posted February 23, 2015 at 2:24 pm | Permalink

    I think this is an interesting perspective. I never considered the relationship literature and PWR. I think your viewpoint on thinking/feeling is something many English majors and academics can relate to. I considered concentrating in Literature before I chose PWR for similar reasons. Both allow you to think and I feel and neither are mutually exclusive.