Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2017

Children Speaking: Agency and Public Memory in the Children’s Peace Statue Project

Risa Applegarth University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Abstract

Scholars in rhetoric have been slow to recognize children as capable of exercising rhetorical agency. This oversight inadvertently recapitulates the divestment of agency experienced by children who speak publicly about civic concerns. This essay examines the argumentative and organizational strategies of a group of children from New Mexico who worked in the early 1990s to publicize, design, and fund the Children’s Peace Statue and who repeatedly petitioned the Los Alamos County Council to accept the statue as a gift to the city of Los Alamos. Analyzing the children’s rhetorical strategies alongside responses of adult opponents, I show how opponents rejected the statue in part by resisting engaging with children as rhetorical agents. This research underscores the stakes of recognizing children’s agency as complexly meaningful.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2017-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2016.1238104
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Thomas (2023)
    More than Mere Child’s Play: Youth Activism, Ephebic Appeals, and Environmental…
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  2. Randall (2021)
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  3. Proszak (2021)
    Products of US Performance: A Material Rhetorical Education at North Bennet Str…
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  4. Daniel-Wariya (2019)
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  5. Pezzullo et al. (2018)
    Resistance: Taking a Stand, Struggling to Matter
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