Response to "Tlilli Tlapalii..."

            In her article “Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink” by Gloria Anzaldúa explains to us what writing is to her. She describes how her writing is from deep within her soul and how she creates stories in her head in what she calls the Shamanistic State. She has to pick “out images from her soul’s eye” (223) and then has to choose the correct words to describe said images. Her writing is taken from “the human body – flesh and bone – and from the Earth’s body – stone, sky, liquid, soil.” (225).

            This article is similar to those articles about identity. Anzaldúa constructs her identity from what she picks from her soul. It would seem as if her identity, what’s held within her soul, is largely based off of her culture. This makes me also relate this article to Simtherman and Delpit’s articles; those authors are heavily influenced by their culture, like Anzaldúa.

            I really like this article. It was short, captivating and to the point. It was very descriptive in an imaginary sort of way that made it really easy to get into and it felt like I was reading a good book (some sort of fiction title). It was also short so I could take in the whole article easily.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.)

            The significance of Western culture’s ‘individual’ styled art contrasting to the communal aspect of tribal art is that it lets us know how her culture affects her identity. You can tell in reading this article that she is very influenced by her culture. Current literacy/art, I think, is becoming more individual. There used to be a huge demand and want to paint/create religious pieces, I think of centuries ago. Now I feel like a lot of artists are going for things that haven’t been done because there are a lot different ideals these days.

2.)

            I don’t think this article would have been more effective in written in a traditional academic format. The poetic style used in this article was done very well; she must be familiar with creative writing. It kept me captivated the whole time, was more fun to read, and definitely was more interesting than reading what we normally read, which is the traditional academic format. It was refreshing.

Response to "VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa"

            In her article “VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa”, Helene Cixous argues that women need to write as women. This means that she believes that women should write with a voice of their own. Cixous explains to us that women are being oppressed by men’s literature, and that the world of literacy is ruled by men, for men. She states that women should be able to write as themselves and that when they do this they will feel more free to themselves.
            This article relates to Elizabeth Flynn’s article “Composing as a Woman” in that both articles deal with writing varying from males to females. The difference between the articles is that Cixous doesn’t really seem to care for men’s writing, in fact it seems as though she believes that men writing is evil. Cixous says men have “made for a woman an antinarcissism!” (248) and “the infamous logic of antilove.” (248)
            The article also relates to Jonathan Alexander’s article “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body”. In his article he talks about transgender theories; helping others understand transgendered ideals. With Cixous’ article she discusses feminist theories, but instead of helping me understand a woman’s perspective it seems she just wants women to write.
            This article was a good read. I didn’t really like it, but the way it was written definitely helped keep my attention. I feel as if Cixous could not have expressed herself any better, but it also felt like half the things I was reading was just jumbled-up emotion that didn’t really help her argument. Overall: good read, but her argument could be put into better light.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1.)

            This piece did not make me uncomfortable. It kind of made me annoyed. Yea, the writing was good, but her ideals just seem way too feminist for me. I think she should be able to believe in whatever she wants to, but I don’t think hating a group of people (in this case men).  I do think that Cixous was trying to create a certain level of discomfort for the reader. This creates a certain ‘shock value’ which grabs peoples attention. I think that can be a good strategy in writing sometimes, but I don’t feel that it worked me, it just kind of (as said earlier) made me annoyed.

2.)
            When Cixous tells her female readers to ‘write themselves’ I think she means that they should not conform to standards when they write. They should go all out in their writing. This then really shows your identity. If you ‘write yourself’ (go all out in writing) you reveal, on paper, your raw self. It is the perfect representation of one’s identity.

Response to "Transgender Rhetorics..."

            In his article “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body”, Jonathan Alexander tries to inform readers  about transgender theories. He argues that transgender theories can “inspire pedagogical methods that compliment feminist compositionist” (195) methods  of understanding gender as a social construct,
            This article can be related to Smitherman’s article because they both seem to be discussing some sort of struggle within minority groups in relation to literacies. I think this also could be related to Wardle’s article, more specifically: identity. The identity in Alexander’s article would be transgendered individuals.
            I found this article very long and tedious. It was interesting, but not enough to completely hold my attention and ‘pedagogy’ or variations of that word were used often and confused me even after looking the word up. Overall I think the article was decent and I am very thankful for the subsections or else I would have been extremely lost.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

3.)

            “Normally” gendered students can gain insight into transgendered lives. This would promote better understanding and probably less conflict due to the understanding. I would say this would hold true for every minority discourse we have read in class.

4.)

            When Alexander describes gender as a “construct” I think he means that it is defined incorrectly for most. When he says that gender is personal and political I think he means that for people their gender is very close to them. An individual can completely feel one way (masculine or feminine) and look/act another due to “political” reasons. A man may not want to act very feminine at his place of work (I’m thinking construction worker) due to fear of being looked down upon because he does not match the ‘role’ of construction worker or just because his coworkers think badly of him for it.

Response to "God Don't Never Change"

            In her article “God Don’t Never Change”, Geneva Smitherman shows the difference between Black English and standard white English. She goes on to argue that the difference between the two is pointless and that the appropriate choice of language has “everything to do with American political reality” and “nothing to do with the educational process” (189).

            I think this article is similar to Wardle’s article because of the ideas of identity and authority. The identity would be the difference between those who use Black English and those who use standard white English and the authority idea would be the fact that there is an authoritative language and that is standard white English. Without using standard white English you kind of lower your chances in the workplace and other situations. This article is also similar to Delpit’s article in that they both argue about oppression and racism in education.
            I didn’t really find Smitherman’s article that interesting but it was better to see that topic in another light, I’ve never thought of racist oppression in education and literature. Maybe the problem is, in school, we come across this topic far too often and at this point it just is boring and redundant. I’m also not sure what I can get out of this article in the long run though, unlike most of the other articles read in this class.            

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1.)

            Smitherman seems to use black idiom rhetorically by switching to writing in Black English in her article. In doing so she can better explain her perspective of Black English to those who don’t use it. I think this is a very good tactic to use in order convey an abstract idea such as specific languages.

2.)

            Language promotes power for specific races and classes because some languages are more accepted than others. Take standard white English vs. black English; WE is the common language, someone who writes their resume in WE has a better chance of getting a job than someone who writes theirs in BE. I think this is because it’s more comfortable for others, as well as higher educated people seem to have gone to school and learned “standard” English and anything other than that may be looked down upon.

Response to "Composing as a Woman"

Getting Ready to Read

            Gender differences in classrooms never seemed like an issue for me growing up. Occasionally it did seem as if male teachers were harder on male students’ behaviors in class, but rarely, if ever, would it affect a student.

            In Elizabeth Flynn’s article “Composing as a Woman”, Flynn explains that for a long time writing has always been from a male perspective. She argues that both perspectives should be equally shown and presents us with both sides in this article from a hopefully non-female and non-male perspective.

            This article is similar to Wardle’s article in that both authors are discussing identity. Flynn seems to discuss the identity of the work itself; how it’s presented and whom it is supposed to be presented to. It also relates a little to Wardle’s idea of authority when Flynn states that most literature is/was directed towards males from males, males being the authority in literature here.

            When Flynn says, “Women’s perspectives have been suppressed, silenced, marginalized, written out of what counts as authoritative knowledge. Difference is erased in a desire to universalize”, she means that until the want to universalize, join gendered writing together as one, not as male writing and female, all the female writing has been put aside because it does not seem ‘authoritative’ or note-worthy as a males work would be. The silencing of women’s voices relates to the marginalization of other minorities in that they both are actions taken to decrease the authority of a specific group.

Response to "Memoria is a Friend..."

            In his article “Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color”, Victor Villanueva discusses the concept of memoria. He argues that memoria, “the inclusion of memory and past experiences” in literature greatly improves the sense of identity that readers get out of a text. He says that Plato’s prophecy of literacy being the fall of memory is coming true. He thinks that literature needs to use memoria more often to create a greater sense of identity and to successfully show pathos, logos and ethos.
            This article is similar to Elizabeth Wardle’s article and Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau’s article. All of these article discuss identity and with Villanueva’s article he extends this idea of identity more so, showing how memory can be used successfully to create a better picture of an individual’s identity. Villanueva uses poems, which I believe is a great way to show identity, as poems are a very good expression of someone’s identity.
            I found this article almost fun to read. His use of poetry kept me excited to read more as well as took some space out of the large margins of this book. It was a little confusing as it was a much different way to look at discourse communities.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

7.)

            Villanueva’s primary discourse is the discourse from his New York side. His secondary discourse would be that of his Puerto Rican heritage.  To me they seem fairly straight forward, but to get into them deeper you have to take a lot more in than just face value, whether that be his family’s background or what he did in New York to after school, or even what he did in Vietnam.

Response to "Autism and Rhetoric"

            In their article “Autism and Rhetoric”, Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau argue that autism spectrum disorders are themselves rhetorics. Heilker and Yergeau describe it “as a way of being in the world through language”. Heilker tells his side of the story through his life, as his son is autistic and this gives us a good view into the rhetoric that is autism. Yergeau lives with Asperger’s Syndrome and gives us a first hand account into the rhetoric.
            I think that this article is similar to Elizabeth Wardle’s article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces” in that the idea of autism as a rhetoric brings up the idea of identity which Wardle explains in detail. Heilker and Yergeau both do a great job making their identities clear which really opens the article up to really show the community that grows around autistics.
            I found this article more interesting that any of the other articles we’ve read in this class. It’s a really interesting way to look at autism, which I find interesting in itself. Reading about Eli was great and it seemed as if he was in his own, imaginative world, which is really cool to think about. 

Project 3 Intro/Conversation

            Discourse communities; a community of people who congregate in order to discuss specific goals and learn about specific things based on which community they are a part of. John Swales, an American linguist, proposed six rules that communities must meet in order to be called a discourse community. These rules are that the group must have a set of common goals, methods of intercommunication among its members, use the methods of communication to spread information, utilizes one or more genres in order to grow as a community, has specific acquired lexis and has a threshold level of members with suitable relevant content to contribute.

            The use of discourse communities helps us understand how writing and language work together with social groups when studied. When we look at specific discourse communities we can understand the six rules they follow. More specifically when it comes to writing and language the acquired lexis of a discourse community can give us insight into the communities writing style. Some discourse communities seem to have their own language, or with Reddit, the discourse community I am studying, have a sort of ‘inside joke’ style of communicating. With the intercommunication aspect of Reddit you can see how their language almost works as a combined writing experience. Someone will comment on a thread and a comment can either be written onto that comment or onto the parent comment/thread before. This creates an almost essay formatted kind of thread.

            John Swales, as stated earlier, is a very important person when it comes to defining what a discourse community is due to his six main rules. Although Swales is a big name when it comes to discourse communities, his is not the only name that comes to mind. Elizabeth Wardle expanded on the idea of discourse communities. She uses the concept of ‘Identity” and gives three ‘modes of belonging’ for individuals. These modes are Engagement, Imagination, and Alignment. The first two seem to explain themselves by their titles, but alignment is a bit different. Alignment is a concept that means to be able to come to common ground with others sometimes resulting in the destruction of an individual’s identity. There is an article written by Devitt et al titles “Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities”. In this article Devitt et al, dig deeper into the idea of genres within discourse communities. They argue that genres are used for organization within the discourse community. Without these genres there would be a whole lot of information to sort through seeing as there are no genres (I think you can see genres as sub-sections of the community).
            Some ways that I believe that my ethnography could add to this conversation is that I can look further into genres by explaining ‘subreddits’. Subreddits are a great way to view genres and explore them in comparison to each other (other genres). I will also be able to expand on Swales’ six rules of discourse communities because I feel as if Reddit is very open in that all the information is easily accessed due to its use of genres and lexis and the fact that I have been using Reddit for quite sometime now.