Calinda Shely
ENG 540
Romano
3-30-09
Project Proposal Part One: Visual Rhetoric of the Temperance Movement
Overall Scope of the Project
I’m wondering what the visual rhetoric of the temperance movement from the 19th and early 20th centuries looks like with regard to feminist agendas. Examining these forms of visual rhetoric is important for a number of reasons. Firstly it is important because modern persuasive practices also rely heavily on using visual means of persuasion for given movements. Such media include television commercials, billboard and paper advertisements, and internet sites and the imagery contained therein. It’s vital for people to know about the means that creators of visual rhetoric use in order to persuade their audiences to their viewpoints because we live in a society in which visual images are so important; if we take an historical view of the successful ways in which visual rhetoric is used, then we as consumers and citizens can be more aware of visual rhetoric that enters into the realm of propaganda and thus resist the impulse to simply go along with the mentality of the rest of the crowd without examining our own thoughts about and consideration of the situation.
Examination of the visual rhetoric of the temperance movement is also important because of its inherent connection to the women’s rights movement. The issue of visual rhetoric within the temperance movement is one that has not received a great deal of scholarly attention; most examinations of the rhetoric of the temperance and women’s rights movements focus on oral and written compositions. In order to fully understand the tactics of and feminist ideologies inherent to the temperance movement, the visual rhetoric of temperance must be examined closely.
Finally, examination of temperance movement visual rhetoric is personally important to me because I am a feminist scholar. I believe that in order to fully understand the feminist movement and appreciate the struggles of feminists who came before me, I must analyze the means through which the women’s rights agenda can be identified through examples of visual rhetoric in the form of pictures in newspapers, journals, and magazines of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Narrowed Scope
I want to specifically address the changes in temperance visual rhetoric that occur over the course of the 19th century. I want to examine the ways in which visual representations of rhetoric move into the realm of propaganda. The temperance movement began simply as a call for moderation as a means of preserving the home and family from the violence of drunken (mostly) husbands; how did it move from an emphasis on moderation to a complete and total prohibition of alcohol with the passage of the 18th Amendment? I think that the key to this answer lies largely in examination of visual rhetoric because though the literacy rates of the American public rose during the 19th century, the fact remains that many Americans were still largely illiterate (Eisenmann 148). This illiteracy would thus indicate that pictorial representations of temperance movement messages would likely be the most effective means of addressing the greatest segment of the population.
Sources
Primary texts for this project will largely consist of visual representations of temperance rhetoric. One possible source for a number of temperance paintings and drawings is the collected works of George Cruikshank, a British artist who focused largely on creating such pictures. Other possible sources for these pictures include archives within the Gerritsen collection and cartoons from a British journal, Punch. Temperance journals such as The Lily and those with a women’s rights focus such as the Women’s Exponent will also likely provide some help in finding other visual representations of temperance rhetoric. Displayed below are a few examples of these types of temperance illustrations and photos.
Possible secondary sources include the following:
Books:
Blocker, Jack S. Jr. American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Bordin, Ruth. Women and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1981.
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. Man Cannot Speak for Her. New York: Greenwood, 1989.
Earhart, Mary. Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1944.
Epstein, Barabara-Leslie. The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century America. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1981.
Giele, Janet Zollinger. Two Paths of Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. New York: Twayne, 1995.
Gprdan, Elizabeth Putnam. Women Torch-Bearers: The Story of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Evanston: National Women’s Temperance Union Publishing House, 1924.
Martin, Scott C. Devil of the Domestic Sphere: Temperance, Gender, and Middle-Class Ideology. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 2008.
Mattingly, Carol. Well-Tempered Women: Nineteenth-Century Temperance Rhetoric. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1998.
Tyrrell, Ian R. Sobering Up: From Temperance to Prohibition in Antebellum America Eighteen Hundred to Eighteen Sixty. Westport: Greenwood, 1979.
--. Woman’s World, Woman’s Empire: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1991.
Journal Articles
Griffin, Charles J. “’The Washingtonian Revival’: Narrative and the Moral Transformation of Temperance Reform in Antebellum America.” Southern Communication Journal. 66.1 (2000): 67-78.
Heider, Carmen. “Suffrage, Self-Determination, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Nebraska 1879-1882.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 8.1 (2005): 85-107.
Nadelhaft, Jerome. “Alcohol and Wife Abuse in Antebellum Male Temperance Literature.” Canadian Review of American Studies. 25.1 (1995): 15-43.
Nicholls, James Quan. “Liberties and Licenses: Alcohol in Liberal Thought.” International Journal of Cultural Studies. 9.2 (2006): 131-151.
Parker, Alison M. “'Hearts Uplifted and Minds Refreshed': The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Production of Pure Culture in the United States, 1880-1930.” Journal of Women’s History. 11.2 (1999): 135-58.
Slagall, Amy R. “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Women’s Suffrage.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 4.1 (2001): 1-23.
Research Methods
One research assistant will be in charge of reviewing secondary sources for relevant information regarding visual rhetoric produced during the temperance movement. The second assistant will be in charge of actually finding these pictures by searching sources such as art books, periodicals form the period, and internet collections. A third assistant will be assigned to check Zimmerman library and the CSWR for actual pieces of visual rhetoric related to the temperance movement, while the fourth will search for historical background relating to artists who created these temperance pieces.
Within the next month, I will focus on finding visual rhetoric from the temperance movement by searching periodicals from the 19th and early 20th centuries, the CSWR, and the Zimmerman and Fine Arts Libraries. I will then review secondary sources for relevant information regarding these visual representations as well as theoretical constructs to help with my readings of the pictures.
I will produce an article-length paper in which I analyze these pieces of visual rhetoric. In order to produce the best means of representation of these pictures, I might put the pictures on a webpage with my article. Possible presentation options would include using PowerPoint in order to demonstrate points of analysis.
Schedule
March 30-April 5: Find pieces of visual rhetoric for analysis.
April 6-12: Review secondary and theoretical pieces for background information.
April 13-19: Continue to review secondary sources; begin to draft article.
April 20-26: Draft article; begin revisions.
April 27-May 4: Complete revisions and design webpage for presentation; draft proposal for CCCC.
Works Cited
Eisenmann, Linda. Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in the United States. Westport: Greenwood, 1998.