‘Private Letters’ for Public Audiences: The Complexities ofEthosin Louise Clappe’s The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851–1852

Rhetoric Review Jan 2018

‘Private Letters’ for Public Audiences: The Complexities ofEthosin Louise Clappe’s The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851–1852

Suzanne Bordelon San Diego State University

Abstract

This essay examines the work of Louise Clappe (1819–1906), specifically The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851–1852. Clappe’s Shirley Letters are significant because she uses the epistolary genre in the form of private letters to her sister to reach public audiences, a strategy practiced by few other American pioneer women who have been studied. Furthermore, although her location in the mining camps is extremely limiting in a material and social sense, Clappe creatively details her deprivations to highlight her distinctiveness and ingenuity in adapting to California’s challenging frontier.

Journal: Rhetoric Review
Published: 2018-01-02
DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2018.1395267
Open Access: Closed
Topics: argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

VanHaitsma (2021)

An Archival Framework for Affirming Black Women’s Bisexual Rhetorics in the Pri…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Obermark (2019)

“Assurance that the world holds far more good than bad”:The Pedagogy of Memory …

Rhetoric Review

Cites in this index (4)

Applegarth (2011)

Genre, Location, and Mary Austin'sEthos

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Jack (2009)

Acts of Institution: Embodying Feminist Rhetorical Methodologies in Space and Time

Rhetoric Review
Christoph (2002)

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

College English
Reynolds (1993)

Ethosas location: New sites for understanding discursive authority

Rhetoric Review

Also cites 3 works outside this index ↓

Halverson Cathryn. (2013)

Playing House in the American West: Western Women’s Life Narratives, 1839–1987

↗
10.2307/3636592

↗
Smith-Baranzini Marlene.

10.2307/25462581

California History ↗

CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network →

‘Private Letters’ for Public Audiences: The Complexities of<i>Ethos</i>in Louise Clappe’s The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851–1852

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

Cites in this index (4)

Related Articles