Genre, Location, and Mary Austin'sEthos

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2011

Genre, Location, and Mary Austin'sEthos

Risa Applegarth University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Abstract

Scholars in rhetoric are increasingly attentive to the power of places and spaces to shape rhetorical performance. This article takes up the connection between ethos and location identified by several recent scholars, arguing that affiliation with and representation of material environments plays a crucial role in ethos. Ethos strategies are further shaped by genres, which are theorized as locations and environments in order to capture a fundamental dynamic between strategy and social norm. To demonstrate the strengths of understanding ethos in relation to both geographical and genre location, I analyze the ethos-maneuvers of Mary Austin, prominent early twentieth-century feminist, activist, and nature writer whose thirty-year public career merits attention from rhetorical scholars. In articulating how genre shapes Austin's efforts to develop her location in the deserts of the American West into a persuasive public ethos, I argue that ethos emerges in genre-specific formations.

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 2011-01-14
DOI: 10.1080/02773945.2010.499861
Open Access: Closed
Topics: argument

Citation Context

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Cites in this index (9)

Scott (2007)

Stephen Jay Gould and the Rhetoric of Evolutionary Theory

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Skinner (2007)

“The Purity of Truth”: Nineteenth-Century American Women Physicians Write about…

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Pittman (2006)

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Bryson (2003)

Nature, Narrative, and the Scientist-Writer: Rachel Carson's and Loren Eiseley'…

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Christoph (2002)

Reconceiving Ethos in Relation to the Personal: Strategies of Placement in Pion…

College English

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Rhetoric Review
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Rhetoric Review

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CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network →

Genre, Location, and Mary Austin's<i>Ethos</i>

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

Cites in this index (9)

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