Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Nov
30
November 30, 2010 | 1,916 Comments
Cheryl Johnson’s “Participatory Rhetoric” caught my attention with the notion that the reader and text are not the only entities in the rhetorical relationship–that, additionally, there is a third party “mediating” the reading of the text: “I have wondered how much my students’ of my racial/gendered body informs their reading of the literary texts” (389). […]
Nov
9
Feminism, Literacy–Liberating?
November 9, 2010 | 666 Comments
One of the most thought-provoking concepts in Mary Sheridan’s piece is Dorothy Smith’s notion of documentary realities, or the idea that “[i]nstitutionally important texts reflect and construct” social relations (5). This is a given, I think, but it’s not something of which most people, especially college students, are conscious. Encouraging ourselves to pay attention to […]
Nov
2
Translating Intent
November 2, 2010 | 281 Comments
Among the questions that this week’s readings brought to mind, one that recurred frequently concerned the intent behind feminist research. Nancy Naples describes the ethical dimensions of standpoint theory: Postmodern analysts of ethnographic practice emphasize how relationships between researchers and those whose lives they study are dynamic and ever-changing. Furthermore, from this perspective on power, […]
Oct
26
Good Things Come in Threes
October 26, 2010 | 3,231 Comments
Summary McKee and Porter’s piece, “Feminist Research Practices in Cyberspace,” is an invaluable read for teachers of writing. The authors problematize the tenets of feminist research as they come into contact with digital discourses. Citing six concerns of feminist research, they articulate a broad understanding of the “ethical researcher,” which thus informs their own position […]
Oct
20
Reading Summaries
October 20, 2010 | 5,726 Comments
In “Feminist Rhetorical Practices: In Search of Excellence,” Gesa Kirsch and Jacqueline Royster resituate feminist rhetoric: detailing its past trajectory, they argue that standards of excellence in the field have and are continuing to change. Thus, new or revisioned means of considering and engaging (con)texts are necessary: critical imagination, strategic contemplation, and social circulation. They […]
Oct
19
Misgivings
October 19, 2010 | 2,273 Comments
I’m a little perplexed by contradictions that I sense in feminist theory–contradictions that don’t seem to lend themselves to any deep insights. Main point one: According to feminist pedagogy, the classroom should be democratically structured–yet I don’t see a functional application of such a structure in the real world. Any classroom with an instructor will […]
Oct
5
Moving – but towards What?
October 5, 2010 | 8,230 Comments
Of the four essays in section one, I read K. J. Rawson’s “Queering Feminist Rhetorical Canonization,” Wendy Hesford’s “Cosmopolitanism and the Geopolitics of Feminist Rhetoric,” and Ilene Whitney Crawford’s “Growing Routes: Rhetoric as the Study and Practice of Movement.” I was surprised to find that all three incorporated, to some degree, the idea of movement, […]
Sep
28
Derrida, Meet Rhetorica
September 28, 2010 | 3,064 Comments
Wading through Schell’s introduction to Rhetorica in Motion, I happily came upon Barbara Biesecker’s statements about feminism. While feminist research epistemology, methodology, and method are proving insightful and thought-provoking, I’ve been having trouble reconciling those ideas of critical, self-reflexive thought with my previous experiences of feminism–in particular, the sense of victimization that seems to pervade […]
Sep
21
Who’s Narrating Whom?
September 21, 2010 | 8,714 Comments
Towards the end of her article, Debra Journet hits upon an issue with personal narrative that has long bothered me: But I do believe that it is important to recognize that we have invested a great deal of intellectual capital in rhetorical conventions that primarily use ethos (rather than method) to provide evidence that the […]
Sep
14
The Politics of the Personal
September 14, 2010 | 5,527 Comments
I didn’t expect the three readings for this week to overlap as much as they did. I knew roughly what to expect from McNiff and from Naples, but I was surprised how much Kirsch and Ritchie’s article complemented the other two pieces. Very carefully, each author (or pair of authors) addresses the inescapable relevance of […]