Rhetoric Society Quarterly May 2013

Comparative Rhetoric, Postcolonial Studies, and Transnational Feminisms: A Geopolitical Approach

Bo Wang California State University, Fresno

Abstract

This essay examines methodological practices in comparative rhetoric over the past three decades and suggests that the field conceive new perspectives to engage with transnational spaces, hybrid identities, and subjectivities grounded in differences related to gender, race, class, and culture. Drawing on insights from postcolonial and transnational feminist studies, the author explores the implications of contemporary theories for comparative work and develops an approach that links the cultural specificities of particular non-Western rhetorics with larger geopolitical forces and networks. Through an analysis of early-twentieth-century Chinese women's discourse on nüquanzhuyi, she argues that a geopolitical approach focusing on how rather than what we read would help practitioners rethink history, identity, and the nature of theoretical investigation in the field and set the stage for more nuanced and sophisticated studies of non-Western rhetorics in the twenty-first century.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2013-05-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2013.792692
Open Access
Closed
Topics
gender and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (13)

  1. Zhu et al. (2025)
    Thinking in and through Comparative Rhetoric and Decolonial Studies
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Chen (2025)
    Research Brief: Transnational Feminist Rhetorics
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Zhu (2023)
    Interconnectivity and Power Subversion: Enacting the Rhetoric of According-With
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Wang et al. (2023)
    <i>Jian–</i> Rhetorical Seeing, Recognition, and Transnational Reim…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Baniya (2022)
    Transnational Assemblages in Disaster Response: Networked Communities, Technolo…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 13 →
  1. Gries et al. (2022)
    Rhetorical New Materialisms (RNM)
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Dziuba et al. (2021)
    Post-Aristotelianism and the Specters of Monolingualism
    Rhetoric Review
  3. deTar (2021)
    Why “Anticolonial” International Rhetorical Studies?
    Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  4. Al-Khateeb (2021)
    Toward a Rhetorical Account of Refugee Encounters: Biometric Screening Technolo…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Wang (2020)
    Activist Rhetoric in Transnational Cyber-Public Spaces: Toward a Comparative Ma…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  6. García et al. (2020)
    The Trace of a Mark That Scatters: The Anthropoi and the Rhetoric of Decoloniality
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  7. Griffo (2016)
    The Practices of Representation in a Transnational Ethnic Art Exhibit
    Rhetoric Review
  8. Mao et al. (2015)
    Manifesting a Future for Comparative Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Review

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Mao (2011)
    Doing Comparative Rhetoric Responsibly
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Lyon (2010)
    Writing an Empire: Cross-Talk on Authority, Act, and Relationships with the Oth…
    College English
  3. Mao (2010)
    Introduction: Searching for the Way: Between the Whats and Wheres of Chinese Rhetoric
    College English
  4. Wang (2010)
    Engaging Nüquanzhuyi at the Turn of the Century: The Making of a Chinese Femini…
    College English
  5. Hesford et al. (2008)
    Introduction: Configurations of Transnationality: Locating Feminist Rhetorics
    College English
Show all 8 →
  1. Mao (2007)
    Studying the Chinese Rhetorical Tradition in the Present: Re-presenting the Nat…
    College English
  2. You (2006)
    The<i>Way</i>, Multimodality of Ritual Symbols, and Social Change: Reading Conf…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Wang (2004)
    A Survey of Research in Asian Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Review
Also cites 7 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1353/elh.2004.0022
     ↗
  2. 10.1080/00335639309384017
     ↗
  3. 10.4135/9781412982795.d11
     ↗
  4. 10.1080/10570310309374770
     ↗
  5. Swearingen C. Jan. (1991)
    Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies
     ↗
  6. Lipson Carol S. (2004)
    Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks
     ↗
  7. 10.1080/15362426.2012.657048
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 29 View in citation network →

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