English Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2766
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Item Copia Rerum: Histories and Theories of Rhetorical Arrangement(2023) Leon, Roberto Sebastian; Valiavitcharska, Vessela V; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Many rhetoric and composition scholars concentrate on developments in argument and expression. Form, however, receives comparatively less attention, leading scholars to ask “Who Took the Form out of the Process?” and to argue for “Re-fusing Form in Genre Theory.” “Copia Rerum” responds to these invitations by reframing the history of rhetoric and composition as a history of rhetorical arrangement. Drawing on primary sources from several fields and attending to terms of art, I account for previously proposed theories of arrangement in composition studies, noting how arrangement is often conceptualized as a matter of intersentential or interparagraph linkages, organizational frames, or a series of moves; and as such, modern approaches to arrangement often reduce arrangement to a matter of argument or expression. Inasmuch as these scholars have found such inspiration from the history of rhetoric, and recognizing that many of these structural concepts are critiqued for their nineteenth-century assumptions and sometimes restricted focus on linear or static form, a turn to the history of rhetoric can enrich our understanding of arrangement. The following chapters turn to ancient rhetoricians from Greek and Roman rhetorics to Medieval and Renaissance rhetorics. Along the way, I attend to terms of art such as ideai, kephalaia, modi positionum, and figura rerum to explore the multidimensional, responsive, synthetic, distributive, variable, and transformational possibilities of rhetorical arrangement. I find that ancient Greek discourse theorists understand arrangement as integral to composition; that other Greeks and Romans recognize the responsive and embeddable potential of mesostructures; that Medieval rhetoricians extend these practices and blur distinctions between the parts of an oration, invention, and the figures of thought; and that the Erasmian tradition clearly combines the figures of thought with the parts of an oration to show how the parts of an oration can be considered discoursal figures. In terms of the history of rhetoric, this dissertation recovers and traces pre-modern and early-modern structural concepts and their explicit and implicit theories and pedagogies. By attending to these examples of pre-nineteenth century units of discourse, my study adds to discussions among historians of rhetoric concerning the Sophists, stasis theory, progymnasmata, Medieval composition, and Renaissance stylistics. In terms of rhetoric and writing studies, this dissertation situates rhetorical arrangement among writing studies, linguistics, psychology, and communication studies; accounts for shifts of structural concepts from writing studies to adjacent fields; and offers new theoretical and methodological ways of thinking about and teaching genre moves. The theories I recover and principles I explore can serve as a fresh basis for thinking about arrangement and form in composition for scholars, teachers, and students.Item GENRES OF MEMORY AND ASIAN/AMERICAN WOMEN’S ACTIVISM(2022) Bramlett, Katie; Enoch, Jessica; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As human rights and racial inequality dominate public discourse, it has become increasingly clear that Americans are invested in conversations of public memory. The removal of confederate monuments and demands for equity in memorialization for people of color underscore the point that who is remembered and how they are honored is important. Further, the growing awareness of violence against Asian/Americans and the hate crime against Asian/American women in Atlanta has emphasized the need to understand the history of violence against Asian/Americans, Asian/American gendered stereotypes, and the Asian/American activists who fight for equal rights. This dissertation examines three distinct memorial genres—a statue, a traveling exhibit, and a documentary—created by Asian/Americans about Asian/American women activists. My interdisciplinary research engages feminist memory studies, Asian/American studies, and cultural rhetorics to investigate how public memory activists leverage the affordances of different memorial genres to recover Asian/American women’s activism. I consider the ways Asian/American women’s memorials contest the past and navigate the politics of memorialization to influence the present. Each chapter considers how memorials not only remember past activism, but also work to reframe current conversations about Asian/American women in more just and equitable frameworks. I claim that my chosen memorials are created by memorial activists and each seek to expand U.S. memory beyond traditional gendered stereotypes that are pervasive in the United States.Item Working Literacies: Gender, Labor, and Literacy in Early Modern England(2022) Griffin, Danielle; Enoch, Jessica; Donawerth, Jane; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“Working Literacies” explores the literacy abilities and practices of early modern working women, paying attention to the ways that ideologies of patriarchy and labor as well as the institutionalization of poor relief mediated their engagements with literacy. By examining little-studied archival material such as administrative records, literary ephemera, and petitions, “Working Literacies” nuances assumptions about working women's (il)literacy in the period, showcasing the multiple layers of literate ability that women leveraged as available means in making arguments about their lives as economically precarious workers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. In centering the reading and composing habits of pre-modern working women, this dissertation provides historical depth to intricate relationships of gender and class in histories of rhetorical education, economic systems, and labor activism.In my three major chapters, I analyze little-studied literacy artifacts of three sites: 1) curricular and administrative materials from charity schools and orphanages; 2) ephemeral reading materials such as popular chapbooks and ballads; and 3) petitions that address working conditions for women. Although these sites may seem disparate, they present compelling evidence about the literacy of working women at different points in their lives: learning literacy skills, reading as evidence of literacy, and the use of those literacies in the act of petitioning. Furthermore, “Working Literacies” illuminates that ideologies of gender, labor, and literacy were complexly interconnected: lower-class children learned literacy skills in ways that sought to make obedient and industrious workers and wives, yet working women made inventive use of those literacy skills to engage representations of and forward arguments about their lives as workers and their gendered workplaces. In demonstrating the intricate interrelationship between class and gender in theories and practices of literacy, “Working Literacies” enters into and energizes conversations about women and labor as well as histories of literacy and rhetorical education.Item Deliberation and Legitimacy in Economic Development Policy(2021) Good, Joseph E; Wible, Scott; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Most policy decisions are channeled through deliberative forums, such as a city council or state legislature. Economic development is a frequent concern in those deliberative forums, as economic development policy can greatly affect the life and livelihood of constituents. Yet the process of economic development policy can be enigmatic, intimidating, and/or inequitable. Accordingly, this dissertation analyzes economic development in localized policy processes and decisions. The driving goal is to better understand and ameliorate policy problems, especially problems of democratic deliberation and legitimacy. Thus, this dissertation joins other works that aim to “illustrate how rhetoric engages advocates and audiences alike to frame public problems and identify policy solutions.” This dissertation uses case studies as the basis for qualitative analysis. The case studies are distinct episodes of economic development decisions and campaigns. Rhetorical analysis is the main method of analysis. But this dissertation also honors the goals of a “problem structuring” study, where policy problems are interpreted, organized, and more clearly defined. Furthermore, each case is structured as an ecological study. This intensive observation of past situations and decisions allows a more concentrated focus on policy problems. Chapter one introduces the frame of work, methods, and goals. Chapter two is an intensive look at the economic development policy of Harrisburg, PA from 1999-2003. This centers around an aging trash incinerator and encompasses issues such as environmentalism and social justice. Chapter three observes university-centered economic development. A series of case studies shows how universities employ similar rhetorical appeals to secure funding and investment. Chapter four addresses democratic legitimacy. After defining the term, the case studies of previous chapters are re-analyzed to uncover problems of democratic legitimacy. In using this localized focus and distinct methodology, this dissertation endeavors to ameliorate policy problems in the analyzed cases. Yet these problems are often analogous to policy processes in many other contexts. Therefore, this dissertation is applicable to many policy situations across the country.Item “SO HARD A STEPMOTHER” TO POESY: LEVERAGING THE TRADITIONAL BALLAD AS EPIDEICTIC RHETORIC AND SOCIAL ACTION(2020) Danielson, Kathy Anne; Valiavitcharska, Vessela; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Poetics are foundational to both social ideology and rational forms of argumentation. Highlighting a foundational role for rhetorical poetics, I suggest the traditional, third-person narrative ballad idiom as epideictic rhetoric and look at the agential intent of the ballad form from within the foundational elements of its construction/re-construction: its story selection, protagonist selection, narrative sequencing, authorial gaze, and narrative outcomes. The traditional ballad is most widely viewed as a folklore representative of cultural values and beliefs, yet the traditional ballad is also a site of social contest, a challenge to normative cultural ideology and harmful social structures. Despite its distanced wrappings, often we find the “traditional” ballad is a rhetoric narratively structured to apportion blame, an epideictic seeding conviction for the necessity of social change.Item Beating Trump as "Job One": Media Framing of Electability in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary(2020) Bachman, Jenna Nicole; Coleman, Linda K.; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The 2020 Democratic Primary field was the most diverse in history but narrowed to two septuagenarian white men, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with the former winning the primary. Many candidates of color and women candidates left the race before voting began; consequently, many voters were not able to vote for a candidate who was not a white man. “Electability,” a state in which a candidate is perceived to have qualities that make success in a general election likely, frequently arose in media discussions of the candidates. This thesis examines the media frames surrounding electability by analyzing the myths that explain Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, which elevate different demographics as important for Democrats to win over for success in 2020. It then investigates how their concerns inform two contradictory prototypes for what an “electable” candidate looks like and the impact these prototypes have had on women and minority candidates.Item Syrian Refugee Women in the Diaspora: Sustaining Families through Literacies(2020) Hijazi, Nabila A; Hijazi, Nabila A; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Literacy and composition studies scholars have sought to recast our understanding of literacy as not only fluid and mobile but also as embedded within a socio-historical context and in a host of larger issues, such as housing and employment. However, who is included in those contexts is still expanding? One set of voices, not always depicted well, is refugee women’s experiences which are usually framed within a dominant narrative of female fragility. Based on interviews done across languages, participant-observations, and analysis to examine the literacy practices and literacy learning experiences of Syrian refugee women in the Washington, D.C. region, my qualitative study extends this existing research in specific ways. First, by exploring the intersections of narrative, literacy, and refugee experience, more specifically gendered refugee experiences, I expand the scope of what counts as literacy and show how the types of literacy Syrian refugee women engage with resist Western definitions of literacy. My study focuses on a wide array of literacies, including non-school, non-print, and even translingual literacies, that Syrian refugee women practice as they negotiate their gendered identities in constructing the diasporic home. I show the ways and communication channels beyond reading and writing where literacy takes place: in listening, sharing, and retelling stories. Second, I show how these women—in embodying different literacy practices including functional, rural, and food and in reverting to domestic spaces and conservative gender roles—not only exert agency and protect their families but also allow for preservation and migration of literacies. By creating spaces for refugee women’s narratives and stories to emerge and for their experiences and voices to be valued, I add to the existing research in literacy and composition fields about the need to legitimize gendered refugee voices and to better serve the needs of these groups that were marginalized in their countries, through their journeys to asylum, and in the host countries where they resettle. Finally, I emphasize how the field of composition and rhetoric might learn from refugee women’s literacy practices and how these practices can be part of the composition classroom. I offer implications for pedagogy and offer suggestions to bridge the gap between the learning communities that exist within and outside academic institutions. I identify productive directions for future research about the importance of different literacies and migration of literacies across borders between countries and even across communities that exist in the same country or even the same physical location.Item The Feeling of Persuasion: A Cognitive Rhetorical Account of the Emotional Appeal(2019) Mozafari, Cameron; Israel, Michael; Valiavitcharska, Vessela; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Emotion often takes the back seat in contemporary rhetorical investigation, as emotions are treated as subjective reactions rather than the result of deliberate forms of argumentation. In classical antiquity, rhetorical training for emotional persuasion required students not only to learn what sorts of arguments could move their audiences but, more importantly, how that movement was composed linguistically and psychologically. Yet as history progressed and disciplines branched, the formal study of language and cognition separated from the study of rhetoric, resulting in a conceptually stunted understanding of the emotional appeal. This dissertation returns to classical questions and theories of emotional persuasion but does so with insights from contemporary emotion science and cognitive linguistics. Emotion is understood as neither purely physiological nor purely conceptual but rather as embodied conceptualizations grounded in culture-specific scripts. The dissertation lays out a model for understanding how non-emotive language links up to emotion activation through the introduction of the theater of the mind model, an expansion on the stage model of Cognitive Grammar. It then traces three strategies for arousing and controlling audiences’ emotions from classical rhetorical theory: the enthymematic activation of emotion concepts, the enargeiac amplification of emotion events, and the mitigation of potential threats so as not to excite emotions. Analyzing discourse from politics, fundraising letters, and college student writing, this project argues, contrary to popular opinion, that emotional appeals are not antithetical to reason but instead very much dependent on reason, in that they act as grounds for arousing and guiding inferences in predictable ways for rhetorical purposes.Item Embodied Ethos: Negotiations of Authority, Credibility, and Trust in Roman Republican Coinage and Renaissance Texts(2019) Vlahovici-Jones, Gabriela A.; Valiavitcharska, Vessela; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“Embodied Ethos” explores how coins negotiate rhetors’ ethos in antiquity and how Renaissance texts illustrated with coin images reconstruct and appropriate the ethos of ancient coins. With a methodological framework that puts in conversation ancient rhetorical theories, modern theories in visual and material rhetoric, and cognitive linguistics, the project approaches ethos as an interweaving of authority, credibility, and trust, as well as a form of inter-subjectivity between rhetors and audiences. Applied to a discussion of early Greek and Roman coinage, this framework reveals that the negotiation of ethos occurs in relation to transcendental, social, or individual systems of power, truths, and values. An analysis of Roman Republican coins minted at the onset of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey suggests that the warrying factions use coin iconography and inscriptions to negotiate the leaders’ ethos and to mount responses to political crises. While Pompeian coinage invokes Rome’s past and elevates Pompey to transcendental status, Caesarean coinage invokes Rome’s future and encourages allegiance to Caesar as an individual. In the Renaissance, coin images import the ethos of ancient coins into printed texts. Guillaume Rouillé’s Promptuaire des medalles integrates coin images into literacy-based contexts and appropriates the ethos of ancient coins in order to energize the life of the text, to advance a form of literacy that balances oral and visual reading, and to help audiences negotiate their own ethos as readers. Madeleine de Scudéry’s Les Femmes illustres appropriates the ethos of ancient coins to support the ethos of women as marginalized rhetors. In this text, coin images invoke the public roles of famous women of antiquity, draw attention to the female orators as a community of speakers, and encourage audiences to accept and read a rhetorical text about women. Overall, the transmission of coin ethos from antiquity into the Renaissance suggests that, as objects of cultural significance, coins participate in complex networks of objects and texts and carry persuasive messages across cultures and time periods.Item School, State, and Nation: Educational Rhetorics at a Korean Women's College During and After Japanese Colonization, 1918–1965(2019) Tillman, Nathan Wil; Enoch, Jessica; Valiavitcharska, Vessela; Comparative Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“School, State, and Nation” examines how the leaders and students of Ewha College, founded by American missionaries in 1910 as Korea’s first college for women, used rhetorical strategies to negotiate Japanese colonial power and Korean patriarchal objectives as they pursued their educational goals during and after the Japanese colonial period (1918–1965). This project draws on a range of Korean- and English-language primary sources, including letters, reports, photographs, articles, emblems, and autobiographies, especially the work of Ewha’s last American president Alice Appenzeller (in office 1922–1939) and first Korean president Kim Hwallan (1939–1961). Analyzing these sources, I show how Ewha became a contested site for the competing agendas of the Japanese colonial state, Korean nationalists, and the school community. I argue that Appenzeller, Kim, and Ewha women generally crafted what I call “educational rhetorics,” or the rhetorical strategies leveraged to constantly re/define their school’s relationship with the Japanese state and Korean nation during and after the colonial period. I identify performance, debates about education’s utility, and confession as three categories of these educational rhetorics. “School, State, and Nation” analyzes these educational rhetorics and argues that Ewha women leveraged them during the colonial period 1) to cooperate with the Japanese state while resisting its assimilating and imperializing goals, and 2) to signal their support for Korea’s independence and welfare while insisting on women’s equality in this nationalist project, and, after Korea’s liberation in 1945, 3) to mitigate Korean criticisms of Kim’s wartime collaboration with Japan. Anglophone rhetoric scholars have increasingly diversified our understanding of how rhetoric works in environments outside the US and Europe, examined the role of schools in identify formation and promoting/stifling political activism, and studied the rhetorical power of performance, education, and confession to dis/empower marginalized groups and pursue social reform. “School, State, and Nation” builds on and complicates this rhetorical scholarship by extending it into post/colonial Korea, where the complex environment complicates national and cultural categories of rhetoric, diversifies our understanding of the rhetorical role of women’s colleges in colonial and postcolonial environments, and problematizes definitions of patriotism and collaboration.
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