A revolution in rhetoric: Recycling the language of control through rhetorical activism
Abstract
The English language, with its infinite space and possibility, is and can be recycled to recreate authority of voice and representations of the past. Where once language was used for creating and maintaining colonial control, now, with its careful study and critical (re)applications through fictions written as alternative versions of colonial events, it can be a source of power for the reclamations of identity, culture, religion, history, story, context, and imagination. This study (re)examines an iconic exploration and colonial narrative to highlight the rhetoric used to capture and create Indigenous Peoples and places. Additionally, this study explores how works of fiction told from the perspective of those who experience colonization can (re)use the language of the colonizer to (re)create native associations that (re)value meaningful contexts severed by conquest. Inspired by George Orwell's concept of "regeneration," rhetorical activism is the careful (re)use of language to (re)create stories denied by colonization.
Subject Area
Comparative literature|Rhetoric
Recommended Citation
Rausch, Jerien Elizabeth, "A revolution in rhetoric: Recycling the language of control through rhetorical activism" (2010). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1477822.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1477822