Writing orality: Claiming rhetorical sovereignty within ecologies of rhetorics

Emily M Legg, Purdue University

Abstract

This thesis argues that rhetorical agency, when put into practice functions as rhetorical sovereignty. Rooted within American Indian rhetorics as well as postmodernity, a theory of rhetorical sovereignty can be seen as the positioning of enacted orality which breaks down the oral/literate divide as well as being situated in rhetorical ecologies with a unique focus on communities rather than individuals. Rhetorical sovereignty is both a recognition and a right that is always already rhetorical in nature and specifically addresses networked agencies and technologies as part of those rhetorical ecologies. To arrive at this nuanced understanding of rhetorical sovereignty, this thesis begins by revisiting definitions of sovereignty as both political and rhetorical through a historic lens focused on American Indians. This lens explores much of the relationship of American Indians to writing as well as how specific and unique rhetorics developed that differ from canon out of the unique contextualization of colonialism that Western rhetorics do not afford. In addition, this thesis sets up how this context allows us to see the nuances of writing as viewed through a technological lens and how that lens leads to a need to challenge the oral/literate binary that is in place. I will show that by framing writing as a technology, we disrupt the oral/literate binary by exploring how orality, which has previously been connected to the primitive and natural, is always already technological by nature. This move breaks down the hierarchical relationship between orality and literacy that has been in place historically as well as politically and places them in a networked relationship. In addition to breaking down these hierarchies, this thesis revisits discussions of rhetorical agency and the problems that arise when we begin to this of agency as being illusive and the agent as a displaced subject. These problems become more apparent as we work within the framework that rhetorics exists within networked ecologies rather than specific locales. To address the concerns of the displaced agent, this thesis looks toward marginalized, oral-based societies such as the Cherokee to see how they have adapted to the displaced oral agent through the adaption of writing technologies that maintain the oral agent. In this way, I will explore how American Indians have been able to establish rhetorical sovereignty through enacted orality, that is, the writing of orality. Finally, this thesis hopes to answer many of the critiques of rhetorical agency with a look at how rhetorical sovereignty is claimed within rhetorical ecologies as an alternative view. I explore how rhetorical sovereignty focuses the community rather than the individual, and in this way, acknowledges the plurality of ecologies in ways that rhetorical agency does not. This leads to the creating of a local for rhetorical action to occur through a method of rhetorical positioning by recognition both from the inside and the outside. Ultimately, I argue that, by opening up the rhetorical canon and applying American Indian rhetorics, a theory of rhetorical sovereignty will help us as rhetoricians and compositions address the postmodern question of rhetorical agency. In addition, this move creates a community of scholars across interconnected disciplines that can more fully contextualize ecologies of rhetorics and the role of the writer within.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Bay, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication|Rhetoric|Native American studies

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