One of the few authors to define and focus on feminist theories of
rhetoric, Krista Ratcliffe takes Bathsheba s dilemma as her
controlling metaphor: "I have the feelings of a woman," says
Bathsheba Everdene in Hardy s "Far from the Madding Crowd, ""but
only the language of men." Although women and men have different
relationships to language and to each other, traditional theories
of rhetoric do not foreground such gender differences, Ratcliffe
notes. She argues that feminist theories of rhetoric are needed if
we are to recognize, validate, and address Bathsheba s dilemma.
Ratcliffe argues that because feminists generally have not
conceptualized their language theories from the perspective of
rhetoric and composition studies, rhetoric and composition scholars
must construct feminist theories of rhetoric by employing a variety
of interwoven strategies: recovering lost or marginalized texts;
rereading traditional rhetoric texts; extrapolating rhetorical
theories from such nonrhetoric texts as letters, diaries, essays,
cookbooks, and other sources; and constructing their own theories
of rhetoric. Focusing on the third option, Ratcliffe explores ways
in which the rhetorical theories of Virginia Woolf, Mary Daly, and
Adrienne Rich may be extrapolated from their Anglo-American
feminist texts through examination of the interrelationship between
what these authors write and how they write. In other words, she
extrapolates feminist theories of rhetoric from interwoven claims
and textual strategies. By inviting Woolf, Daly, and Rich into the
rhetorical traditions and by modeling the extrapolation
strategy/methodology on their writings, Ratcliffe shows how
feminist texts about women, language, and culture may be reread
from the vantage point of rhetoric to construct feminist theories
of rhetoric. She rereads Anglo-American feminist texts both to
expose their white privilege and to rescue them from charges of
naivete and essentialism. She also outlines the pedagogical
implications of these three feminist theories of rhetoric, thus
contributing to ongoing discussions of feminist pedagogies.
Traditional rhetorical theories are gender-blind, ignoring the
reality that women and men occupy different cultural spaces and
that these spaces are further complicated by race and class,
Ratcliffe explains. Arguing that issues such as who can talk, where
one can talk, and how one can talk emerge in daily life but are
often disregarded in rhetorical theories, Ratcliffe rereads Roland
Barthes "The Old Rhetoric" to show the limitations of classical
rhetorical theories for women and feminists. Discovering spaces for
feminist theories of rhetoric in the rhetorical traditions,
Ratcliffe invites readers not only to question how women have been
located as a part of and apart from these traditions but also to
explore the implications for rhetorical history, theory, and
pedagogy. In extrapolating rhetorical theories from three feminist
writers not generally considered rhetoricians, Ratcliffe creates a
new model for examining women s work. She situates the rhetorical
theories of Woolf, Daly, and Rich within current discussions about
feminist pedagogy, particularly the interweavings of critical
thinking, reading, and writing. Ratcliffe concludes with an
application to teaching. "
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