For Tuesday, February 10

Finish reading Bacon, Humblest. Keep doing the mapping exercise (or equivalent).

When you’ve finished Bacon, consolidate the “rhetorical strategies” section of your maps (or rhetorical topoi, analytical frameworks—or whatever you have called it). For Chapter 3, this list would include uplift, truth-facts . . . . revolutionary . . . etc.; for chapter 4 it would include domesticity, sympathy, etc.; for chapter 5 . . . we need to see.

We’ll then read Logan’s anthology of African American women’s speeches and writings With Pen and Voice, as follows. Read the introduction. Then read the intros to each and every rhetor/writer/speaker. Choose two you find interesting and do close readings of their speeches/writings, as follows:

--Use Bacon’s frameworks and observations (her taxonomies of rhetorical strategies) to analyze these works.  (You can also add to them, of course, developing your own theory of how marginalized rhetors enter public discourse; or you can use theories you’ve studied elsewhere.)

--Take good note of the means/medium each rhetor uses to publicize her voice. If you are able, say something about the broader rhetorical situation—think of Buchanan).

I’m thinking that this will result in writing that is more formal than “notes for discussion in class.” So let’s say that this writing is the equivalent of the response paper but a little longer???  Let’s limit it to 2 pages max (of course your own notes can be longer).  I’ll post your responses on the class blog just so we can get ongoing access to each other’s ideas. The page limitation means that people will be more inclined to read across the entire class production—which is better for all of us.  If you’re done before class on Tuesday, send me the file for posting. If you’re not done—after class works just fine.

I am hunting for an article I’ve seen on the rancor between white women abolitionists and African American women abolitionists, so when I find it I’ll notify.