R H E T O R I C  OF  W O M E N
  Communication Studies 435: Fall, 2003
NOTE:The following outline reflects the content and general order of the readings for the semester. Each week I will assign specific readings to be completed and reflected upon in your reading responses.
 I.Basic terms and concepts

    Thus the rigid image of "woman" or "femininity" could be used to punish, to convict, to control - women out of control were clearly sexual and dangerous, and mad.   -- Jane Ussher

  • A Woman's perspective - c. 1917
    Reading: A Jury of Her Peers (handout)
  • Contemporary Views
    Reading: 435 Reader, #1,#2,#3,#4,#5,#6,#7,#8.#9
  • Feminist Perspectives and Concepts
    Reading: Feminist Rhetorical Theories ( FRT), Chapter 1
    435 Reader, #14,#15, #18
  • Common Themes, Different Contexts
    Reading: 435 Reader, #11,#12, #17, #29


 II. APPROACHES TO STUDYING WOMEN'S RHETORIC

    Feminist critics examine rhetorical theory to discover whether and how it incorporates women's perspectives, thus adopting a stance of (re)-vision -- the act of looking back, seeing with fresh eyes.    -- Sonja Foss

  • The Rhetorical process
    Reading: 435 Reader: #19
  • Inventing Women; Challenging Assumptions
    Reading: FRT, Chapter 3
  • Feminist Criticism
    Reading: 435 Reader, #20, #21


 

    Our speech, "the right speech of womanhood,"was often the soliloquy, the talking into thin air, the talking to ears that do not hear you -- the talk that is simply not listened to.     -- bell hooks


 III. WOMEN'S RHETORIC IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

This world taught woman nothing skillful and then said her work was valueless. It permitted her no opinions and said she did not know how to think. It forbade her to speak in public and said the sex had no orators. -- Carrie Chapman Catt (1902)

Reading: 435 Reader, TBA
FRT, Selected theorists


 IV.WOMEN AS GRASSROOTS ACTIVISTS AND AGITATORS

As activists we must adopt a mind-set of anticipation. We must no longer surf the wave. We must become the wind that creates the wave.--Dazzer K. Rivera, Executive Director of Aragaan ng Kalakasan ("Cradle of Strength"), a women's support group in the Phillippines

Reading: 435 Reader: TBA


 V. WOMEN'S RHETORIC IN CYBERSPACE

    I reclaim the activity known as surfing as serious play which can create and maintain relationships be they between individuals, organizations, or hypertext documents.    --Nina Wakeford

Reading: 435 Reader: TBA


  VI. THE FUTURE OF WOMEN'S RHETORIC

We're going to need crazy women marching in the street who make women working inside seem reasonable, and inside negotiators who turn street demands into practical alternatives.    --Gloria Steinem

Reading: 435 Reader: TBA

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This page was last updated on September 2, 2003.