Rhetoric Society Quarterly Nov 2010

The Genre of the Mood Memoir and theEthosof Psychiatric Disability

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Abstract

Recent rhetorical accounts of mental illness tend to suggest that psychiatric disability limits rhetorical participation. This article extends that research by examining how one group of the psychiatrically disabled—those diagnosed with mood disorders—is using a particular narrative genre to engender participation, what I call the mood memoir. I argue here that mood memoirs can be read as narrative-based responses to the rhetorical exclusion suffered by the psychiatrically disabled. This study employs narrative and genre theory to reveal mood memoirists’ tactics for generating ethos in the face of the stigma of mental illness.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2010-11-15
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2010.516304
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Topics
rhetorical criticism genre theory argument disability studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Defossez (2020)
    No Magic Pills: A Burkean View on the Ambiguity of Mild Depression
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Gerdes (2019)
    Trauma, Trigger Warnings, and the Rhetoric of Sensitivity
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  3. Rothfelder et al. (2017)
    Man Interrupted: Mental Illness Narrative as a Rhetoric of Proximity
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Molloy (2015)
    “I Just Really Love My Spirit”: A Rhetorical Inquiry into Dissociative Identity…
    Rhetoric Review
  5. Molloy (2015)
    Recuperative Ethos and Agile Epistemologies: Toward a Vernacular Engagement wit…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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CrossRef global citation count: 22 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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