Border Crossings

Border Crossings

rhetoric :: "Public debate in a society guaranteeing free speech...in which both sides...are heard and those qualified to vote come to a decision binding on all parties" Brian Vickers (55)

feminism ::

• resistance to patriarchal assumptions and practices (political) (55)
• freedom from oppression and equality for women (traditional) (56)

BOTH have traditions in encounters with other people, disciplines, and cultures (56)

Invention and Memory

those who "did not fit" were women, people of colour, poorly educated, overly emotional, unstable (59)

Knowledge

Winning

master narratives of progress and exclusion, subjection and conversion all focus on winning and control

Examples of challenges to the patriarchal norm ::

Rhetoric could learn something from Feminism by...

• choosing discourse based on patterns other than traditional
• choosing not to pursue subjection/subjugation
• allowing for disruptive patterns like contradictions and anomalies
• resisting closure (62)

If ideas and arguments are separate from language, then they are foundational and rhetoric is "mere outward show" (63)

The history of rhetoric--pedagogical and performative--has often challenged the centrality and validity of attention to style (64)

Feminists note that rejection of style generally excludes women from the rhetorical scene (64)

Even when women use more traditional argument style, gender-related concerns influence how the work is received (64)

feminist examples of style ::

Traditionally, women have been excluded from the realm of vocal, public rhetoric although not entirely from effective communication (69)

multiple strategies

• speaking through the writings of others
• translating
• filtering through the words of men
• modifying the masculine oral delivery medium
• pushing boudaries

delivery examples ::

Conclusion

this central metaphor is a powerful but quiet reminder of how borderlands "shift and overlap" in their transitory state (73)

&

in some historical moments there were few, if any, intersections (73)

in our contemporary historical moment, they stand "amid a rich and intricate landscape" (73)

they both are "capable of both conscious and unconscious hierarchies and exclusions" (73)

feminists can be as antagonistic, and competitive, "as the most traditionally masculinistic academic" (74)

rhetoric could enable feminists to reconstruct rhetorical options for "voicing the feminist stance" (74)

rhetoric would aso benefit by allowing for speaking to a wider, more diverse audience (74)

la frontera could "create a space for public discourse" that is inclusive, accepts difference, accepts Others, and does not attempt to colonise or shut down the exchange (75)

feminism argues there is no public/private distinction; knowledge based in personal, lived experience is valuable, important, and significant (59)

la frontera

the borderlands

"As human beings we are both limited and empowered by our individual and collective memory and invention" (59)

until recently, assumed to be masculine, unified, stable, autonomous, rational (58)

Margaret Fuller :: used a collaborative process of assertion and response (61)

Rhetor

bell hooks :: eschew's footnotes to open her text and style to "multiple voices" and broader audiences (60)

Jane Tompkins :: loosens the "straitjacket" of antagonism and strives to represent her voice, as well as the other, in alternating juxtaposition (61)

for gaining access to a medium of delivery

Delivery

Rhetoric

remains vital to rhetoric since each rhetorical act "culminates in delivery" (68)

Feminism

feminism challenges rhetoric's "focus on winning" (60)

Aspasia of Miletus :: oral texts delivered (to us) in the print medium of masculine, secondary sources (69)

Ann Richards :: utilises oral delivery that "avoids elitism, antagonism, and paternalism" but takes full advantage of "a fierce 'maternalism' that embraces her constituents" (71)

Sojourner Truth :: simple language and memorable stories combined with her physical bearing allowed her to reach a broader, more inclusive audience in spite of her illiteracy (70-71)

Margery Burnham Kempe :: dictated the story of her life to scribes for delivery, overcoming her lack of formal literacy (70)

plastic, attentive to context, audience-focused discourse (63)

allows insight to exclusionary practices, allows for alternative discourse patterning (63)

Style

Rhetoric

functions as a site of tension and contest within rhetoric (63)

Feminism

Arrangement

Aristotle's famous "two parts" ::

• make your case
• prove it

the heart and soul of inquiry

invention :: leads the rhetor to search for any "available means of persuasion" (58)

memory :: ignites the process of invention

the very substance of knowledge

Ede, L., Glenn, C., & Lunsford, A. (2010). Border crossings: Intersections of rhetoric and feminism. In L. Buchanan & K. J. Ryan (Eds.), Walking and talking feminist rhetorics: Landmark essays and controversies (pp. 54-79). West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press LLC.

Michelle Cliff :: texts weave through a critique of race relations in a poetic, prosaic, non-traditional style (66)

Cixous and Kristeva :: "resist traditional western stylistic conventions of unity, coherence, linearity, and closure" (66)

Emma Goldman :: occupied "the impossible position of a passionate woman" (64-65)

Mary Daly :: offered up an alternative vision for feminism based on "language as a fabric that was originally woven by women in conversation with one another" (65)

Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros :: blend English and Spanish to portray their multiple realities while also allowing others to share in them (66)