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Emancipatory Discourse

其他書名	The Rhetoric of Revolutionaries
出版	California State University, San Marcos, 1998
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=jOVbOAAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Reiland, Kathleen Ellen. MA., California State University, December 1998. Emancipatory Discourse: The Rhetoric of Revolutionaries: Mother Tongue, Other Tongue; Multicultural American Literature; Early Feminist Speeches. Major Professors: Dawn Formo, Yuan Yuan. This work examines emancipatory features in a range of discourses, particular feminist and multicultural, and it provides a theoretical and practical rationale for the study of emancipatory discourse within Literature and Writing Studies. The study relies on a definition of emancipatory discourse that is informed by both a theory-based understanding of "otherness" and a praxis-oriented inquiry of discourse that works to "undo" otherness. As such, this definition foregrounds language as a means of seeking liberation from the controlling, even subtly controlling, influences of society for the self. Thus, coming to power through language can be seen in three ways: first, as an extrinsic overthrow or subversion of power; second, as an intrinsic balance of power (i.e. "empowerment"); or finally, as both. Examples of emancipatory discourse are considered on a rough continuum between rebellious, connoting failure, and revolutionary as a rebellion that succeeds in bringing about a change in the status quo. Such a distinction facilitates an argument that discourse which seeks to emancipate but ignores or rejects prevailing ideology falls closer to "rebellious," while discourse which paradoxically borrows "from what it wants to destroy, the very image of what it wants to possess" falls closer to "revolutionary" in that it provokes an "essential break" between old and new ways of thinking (Barthes 87, 18). Together, these precepts provide the basis for surveying feminist and multicultural emancipatory discourses for evidence of this essential break. It is at this rupture that the dialogic paradox of emancipatory discourse can work as a catalyst to bring about a change in the prevailing ideology within society, or even, within the self in relation to society. In seeking equality by illuminating inequalities, authors use the prevailing ideology against itself to expose the inherent contradictions within it as they seek to compel understanding and inspire people to change, one individual at a time. This project's Preface outlines why the ideological struggle of emancipatory discourse is important to Literature and Writing Studies; and, to establish writing as freedom, it utilizes the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, Jean Paul Sartre, and Patricia Yeager. Chapter One surveys the discourse of feminist scholars working to undo a sense of otherness, particularly as it pertains to mothers mentoring adolescent girls into a "sexualized society." Chapter Two examines the texts of two multicultural American authors also working to undo a sense of otherness using the trope of "blood" figuratively to deconstruct blood heritage. The Appendix includes a comprehensive example where I use the theoretical findings of my research, particularly identified in Chapter One, to create a praxis-oriented application. Specifically, I provide adolescent girls with rhetorical case studies of the masterful speeches of early feminists who subverted men's words to argue on their own behalf against otherness and for woman's right to vote. For the disenfranchised, alternatives to emancipatory discourse can mean a physical fight, flight, or silence. In viewing writing as a site for the ideological struggle for freedom, the paradox of this discourse can be made relevant to those seeking to liberate themselves from oppressive sociocultural influences. In this way, Literature and Writing Studies might contribute to a broader cross-cultural or interdisciplinary study of power relationships