Calinda Campbell Assignment

I'm working in the 1850s with a group of male students preparing to enter an oratorical position in society. I will ask them to examine Campbell's Part II. The Nature and Origin of Experience (46-49). In particular I want them to consider the role of sense and memory.

Campbell says that the sense are "the inlets of perception. They inform the mind of the facts [...] Remembrance instantly succeeds sensation insomuch that the memory becomes the sole repository of the knowledge" (47). He continues, "Memory, therefore, is the only original voucher extant of those past realities for which we had once the evidence of sense" (47). Now, after having read this section, I will ask the men to analyze Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to the Woman's Rights Convention ("Aren't I a Woman?" speech) in terms of this relationship between sense and memory. I want them to consider especially the impact of her words describing her experiences given that they are coming from her memories as a slave that at the very least, occurred 25 years ago. How do the words impact the senses? How does the strength of her memory in particular impact the senses? I want them also to consider the hierarchical ranking of perceptions (sensation, memory, and imagination) and how that relates to the effectiveness of the speech.

What I want to do with this assignment is challenge Campbell's assertion of the way that sense is impacted by the sharing of another person's experiences (memory). Can the experiences of another (speaker) be as vivid as or even more so than the experience of the listener/reader, even though listening entails delving into the realm of imagination, which Campbell claims is the least vivid perception? I feel like Truth's speech has some of the most vivid pieces of imagery and sensory perception I've ever read, even though I must enter into the realm of imagination to engage with it.

I would most likely act this speech out in the highest style in order to try to test that hypothesis. I want the students to focus particularly on the first portion of the speech, that which challenges the ideal of True Womanhood. These men will be familiar with the Ideal of TW, so they will know and likely have participated in many of the actions she describes as not being offered to her, though she, too, is a woman. They can then respond to the strength of the imagery in her words to try and determine if Campbell is ultimately right, or if his assertions leave some wiggle room for audience individuality.

What I'd like to do with the writing assignment relies on a similar way of engaging with an audience as Truth was required to face during her speech. She was in a place she was not familiar with, which relates to the connection of place to the operation of the passions. She was also in an apparently disadvantaged relationship with the persons concerned beccause of the reluctance on the part of many of the pro-suffrage supporters at the Woman's Rights Convention because of her race. I want the men I am teaching to take a similiar position to that of Truth.

I will assume that my students are anti-slavery Northern males. I will ask them to formulate an address to a promiscuous audience in Georgia on the benefits of the abolition of slavery.

What I want is for the students to make an attempt at both reading the place in which they will be (theoretically) performing and predetermining the needs and posible reactions of the persons whom they will address. For this exercise they will need to focus on pages 88-89 in Campbell.

They will have to read the situation as a whole here. They are going to be addressing an audience that has very distinct ideas of how class, race, and gender should be performed, as well as the rights of the individual and what constitutes "property." The students will also have to take the place they are going into consideration: the South and North are growing ever more alientated during this part of history, so they have concerns to think about that include not only how to best convince the audience, but also even personal safety. I want them to closely regard these issues when drafting their speeches; the issue of what appeals to passion one can make in a potentially dangerous situation will make this assignment difficult for the students and really help them to learn about audience and situation considerations.