Reading Response #24

Summary:

     In the article "Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink" by Gloria Anzaldúa, Anzaldúa talks about the importance of writing in her eyes and exactly what it means to her. She relates writing to sacrifice. She truly loves the art and believes it requires determination and trust in herself. Anzaldúa believes writing is directly related to her identity and her self-being. She says,

To write, to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that I can communicate with images and words and that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa -- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one. (224)

     The article by Anzaldúa then splits into an article by Andrea A. Lunsford, who talks about Gloria Anzaldúa and delves into Anzaldúa's thoughts and ideas about writing.


Synthesis:

     This article reminds me of the other articles we read regarding identity. For example, the Alexander and Cixous articles discuss gender in the writing world, which directly relates to identity. The Smitherman and Delpit articles focus on how racial identity influences writing.


Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. Mainly, Anzaldúa expresses Western art as something simply to be viewed, while tribal art is a bit more personal and relates more to the identity of a person. I believe that current literacy and culture is becoming more communal than individual because people do not really express themselves in the same ways. Many things are connected and referenced through others. Individualism is very hard to find.

2. I think Anzaldúa's approach is effective. I do not think it would have been as effective if she had used a more academic approach because she would be straying from her own ideas and argument. Her point is to show her readers what writing is to her and how it relates to identity and creativity within oneself. Using an academic approach would have made it just that: academic. Readers would see it more as a research article with a purpose to tell them facts, or something along those lines. The creative approach does exactly what it should; it represents her own ideas through her own writing style, rather than just through the words she writes.


Personal Response: 

     I enjoyed this article. I liked how it was an article based on creativity, which is along the lines of where I want to be with my own writing. It was refreshing to read an article that was less academically-based than the others. It was a completely new approach. It was much more relatable and a lot easier to read and understand.

Reading Response #23

Summary:

     In the article "VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa" by Hélène Cixous, the main topic revolves around feminism and women writing. Cixous believes that a change in the society can occur if women learn to write in order to "reconnect with their bodies" and "write themselves into existence." She claims how men are the prominent voice in writing, and she thinks that this should be changed. She thinks that this holds women back from having their own voice in writing. Cixous uses the myth of Medusa to show how she believes men have made "horrifying" images of women in order to keep them from exploring their own voice in their writing.


Synthesis:

     Cixous' article relates to many of the other articles we have read regarding gender and gender roles within writing and literacy. The article especially relates to the Flynn article because they both discuss the differences between men and women in terms of writing. It can also relate to the Alexander article; identity is partly the issue with the feminist writing Cixous discusses, and identity was the main concept in the Alexander piece.



Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1. The article did not really make me feel uncomfortable because I have been getting used to reading things of this nature. However, I do think that Cixous wanted to cause some discomfort in her readers. I think this is so because the topic is not really one you would hear or talk about normally. In order to see and understand her viewpoints and argument, it would require a deeper level of thinking and would probably cause some kind of discomfort or strange feeling within.

2. When Cixous tells her readers to "write themselves," she means that she wants them to explore their own identity and put it into their writing. She believes that feminist writing can help women discover themselves and may even bring about a societal change as far as the way men and women are portrayed in writing and the authority each gender plays.



Personal Response:

     I was not that fond of this article. I think it is because we have been reading about gender and gender roles (especially for females) for a while. It's not that it was interesting at all, it just didn't seem very new to me and Cixous' ideas were kind of complicated. It was strange to me how she thought of Medusa in order to relate it to her argument. I couldn't really use her points to relate them to my own life or writing.

Reading Response #22

Summary:

     In the article "Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body" by Jonathan Alexander, readers learn about the concept of transgender theories in relation to feminist studies that are used to help understand gender as a social construct. Alexander breaks down the article into subheadings and presents specific examples to help his argument. He talks about student writing and provides various stories of student experiences. Alexander believes that this concept should be confronted with an open mind in order to provide for better comprehension of the gender construct.


Synthesis:

     Alexander's article is closely related to the various articles we have read regarding identity within writing. The concept of transgender identity can relate to the concepts of Black English (Smitherman), Flynn's feminist/women concepts, and others.


Applying and Exploring Ideas:

3. The significance of trans pedagogy are the differences that it brings and the thoughts which it provokes. People are forced to think more deeply about the subject and look into the actual meanings of gender. Exposure to this construct could open up more minds and give people more insight; people would not necessarily be as judgmental. This concept is not as discussed as others, but I believe this significance is true throughout other minorities because when students are exposed to them, they are forced to think. They must open their minds in order to understand the complexity of what is going on.

4. Alexander describes gender as a construct because there is no solid definition. It is very much negotiable. This is seen through the concept of trans pedagogy. Transgender studies require the need to throw out all definitions and characteristics of male and female normality and transform meaning into something completely new. The concept is very personal, yet also can be political because there are people who do not fit the social norms that we have been taught, which provokes national and political/societal attention.


Personal Response:

     I got lost within the article at times due to the complexity of the topic and Alexander's writing, as well as the long length. However, I found this article to be interesting because most of the time as students, we are not required to look into this topic and we are rarely brought into it. We study gender as plain male or female, and are normally not looking at the transgender community. It provoked some thought in me and I think that Alexander got his point across well.

Reading Response #21 (Smitherman)

Summary:

     In the article "'God Don't Never Change': Black English from a Black Perspective" by Geneva Smitherman, the concept of stylistic differences in writing between blacks and whites is discussed. Smitherman argues how "Black English" should not be seen as incorrect simply because of grammatical error. She believes that it is merely a style of writing and sees people who disagree as racist, thinking that they are oppressing the Black English language. Smitherman uses examples of black students who received bad grades due to their grammar in order to explain her point.


Synthesis:

     This article is strongly related to other articles we have read--Delpit, Wardle, Flynn--regarding identity in writing. Each of these authors believes that identity shapes the way a person a writes. This article also relates to articles based on discourse communities--Swales, Gee, etc.--because the Black English language can be seen as its discourse community.



Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

2. Smitherman is using Black Idiom rhetorically by giving specific examples and using the Black English language throughout her article. She is trying to make this effective for her argument to prove her points by using her ideas upfront.

3. Language promotes power for specific races and classes because for example, in the society, we see an overwhelming white/English majority. Arguably, English-speaking whites have the most power. Literacy plays a huge role in power. It is believed that certain classes/races have specific positions of "power," and the most powerful must be highly literate--correct grammar, usage, overall language, etc.



Personal Response:

     I thought this article was pretty interesting, mostly because it sparked my attention to my own beliefs and brought to light exactly how society is regarding literacy and race. I do not exactly agree with Smitherman, though. I do not think it is racist or oppressing to blacks if we see some of their grammar as incorrect. It is simply the way we were taught the English language, so anything else is considered "wrong." As an English major, grammar is important to me. It is not the most important in my mind, but I know mostly what is correct and what is not. I think that it is okay for everyone to have their own style and language, but at the same time, we should not be called racist for telling a black student that they may have some grammar mistakes. I learned specific ways of English grammar and language, and that it is what it is.

Reading Response #20

Summary:

     In the article "Composing as a Woman" by Elizabeth Flynn, Flynn expresses feminist ordeals and ways of writing in composition. She discusses how the male perspective has been the typical way of writing and the most recognized, and how female writers do not receive as much credit and recognition as they should. She discusses gender differences and roles in composition.



Synthesis:

     Flynn's article is different than many of the articles we have recently read because it does not deal with specific discourse communities. However, it relates to some of the other articles we have read that are based on identity because it discusses the concept of identity as a way of shaping someone's writing.  This article was geared towards women and their roles in the composition world, rather than certain communities as a whole.



Getting Ready to Read:

     I have never really noticed any differences in gender treatment in my classes throughout my academic career. None of my teachers have ever treated me or another student differently based on their gender.




Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1. This means that women have been oppressed as writers and male composition has been much more focused on. The marginalization of women relates to the marginalization of other minorities because Flynn basically expresses women in her article similar to a minority, due to their oppression in writing.

Reading Response #19

Summary:

     In the article "Memoria Is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourses of Color" by Victor Villanueva, the concept of memoria is introduced. Villanueva explains the connections between memoria and people of color. He explains all of this in the terms of discourse. Memoria utilizes Greek philosophies--logos, ethos, and pathos--in order to give more insight to an author's own identity and background. He ties the discourse with people of color and goes through the struggles and difficulties that come along with it.

Synthesis:

     Villanueva's article ties in with all of the other articles we have read about discourse communities. He proves that the conversation is still going on and will not end any time soon. It is clear that there are many different views and subtopics that can be related to the main topic of discourse communities. All of these articles have been helping me learn and expand on the third project. 

Personal Response:

     I thought this article was kind of confusing. The way it was written made it hard to follow along with. Villanueva added a bunch of stories and random excerpts and he did not really have an introduction. It was hard to figure out what his exact points were. It was interesting, however, to get another point of view to add to the conversation on discourse communities. 

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

7. Villanueva's primary discourse is his private, personal life. His secondary discourse is his academic life, which is much more public. I think that Villanueva's ideas were more complex than Gee's because they were more difficult to understand. It was hard to see how exactly he was tying color to his concept of memoria. Gee's was much more straightforward.

Reading Response #18

Summary:

     In the article "Autism and Rhetoric" by Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau, the concept of autism as its own unique discourse community is discussed. This idea is connected and seen as basic rhetoric. This article goes into detail about autism; the authors try to get readers to understand autism and be able to comprehend their ideas. The idea of rheortical listening is introduced and used as an example.
 
     "...rhetorical listening allow us to generate a more productive discourse about autism and the rhetorical triangle" (265).

     The authors point out that knowing more about autism stems from thinking about the disorder rhetorically.

     "...adopting a rhetorical perspective on autism and rhetorically listening to autistics could radically revise what we think we know about autism, could fundamentally challenge some of our most foundational assumptions about autism and autistics."



Synthesis:

     This article can be compared to all of the other articles we read about discourse communities. Every author has something different to add to the conversation about discourse communities and has several unique, yet similar thoughts and ideas.
     Heilker and Yergeau add to the conversation by building on the definition(s) of discourse communities through their examples of the autistic community. This is traced back to the Swales and Gee articles because of their introductions to the definitions of what a discourse community really is and its importance. The other authors simply add on to each concept and theory, and expand the conversation through their own means of interpretation.




Personal Response:

     Each of these articles are helping me to understand discourse communities much more and in turn are helping me with Project #3. It is becoming easier to read the articles due to my newfound comprehension of what discourse communities are and how they are viewed through the literary world, as well as the society.
     This individual article was interesting to read because I have never really thought about autism as being a discourse community.