Race, Rhetoric, and the Postcolonial - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791441741 ISBN 13: 9780791441749

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1998

Synopsis

Six internationally renowned intellectuals are brought together in a cross-disciplinary dialogue that addresses rhetoric, writing, race, feminist theory, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory.

Race, Rhetoric, and the Postcolonial brings together six scholarly interviews with internationally renowned intellectuals outside of rhetoric and composition whose work has direct implications for scholarship within the discipline. Included are interviews with postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha, postcolonial feminist and race theorist Gloria Anzaldúa, African American race scholar Michael Eric Dyson, British cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall, Argentinean political theorist Ernesto Laclau, and French philosopher Chantal Mouffe.

About this title

About the Author:

At the University of South Florida, Gary Olson and Lynn Worsham are Professors of English. Most recently, Olson is the coeditor (with Todd W. Taylor) of Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition, also published by SUNY Press, and Worsham is coeditor (with Susan Jarratt) of Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words.

Review:

“This book defines links between postcolonial theory and U.S. multiculturalism. The particulars and differences within African American and Chicano/Latino/Hispanic cultures and identities are elegantly illustrated and cogently debated. Ties between multiculturalism and postcolonial theory are linked at many points to concepts of composition and rhetoric―‘writing’ and ‘self’―in diverse, sometimes surprising, nearly always illuminating ways. It offers much food for thought, further discussion, and debate.” ― C. Jan Swearingen, University of Texas at Arlington

“I learned a lot from this book about the complexities of postcolonial theories, and about how those theories intersect with issues of composition and rhetoric. I enjoyed the progression from Homi Bhabha’s poststructuralist understanding of postcolonialism through U.S. Latina and African American writers (Anzaldúa, Dyson) and out to the British/Caribbean context that Laclau, Mouffe, and Stuart Hall inflect in such different ways. This book provides an accessible introduction to issues which are connected to the daily concerns of writing teachers in important, but not obvious ways. Reading these interviews helps to illuminate those connections.” ― Susan Wells, Temple University

“In the postcolonial era when the English language is no longer confined to imperialistic contexts, this book is a step toward the democratization of language across cultures. The classical definition of rhetoric as the art of persuasion does not change here, but this book points out the need for contextual considerations and sensitivity to cultural nuances.” ― Mabel Khawaja, Hampton University

About this edition

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0791441741
• ISBN 13: 9780791441749
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286
• Editor: Olson Gary A.