Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Jan 2020 Open Access

Walking in Jamaica: Exploring the Boundaries and Bridges of Rhetorical Agency

Brent Lucia

Abstract

Communities are in constant flux, shifting within a network of people, things and spaces; yet it is not uncommon to see a universal narrative emerge within the local commonplace of our towns and cities. These narratives are often too simplistic, avoiding the dynamic array of rhetorical flows that are circling through the social, material and historical realities within a communities’ actual network. During my time working in Jamaica Queens, New York, I witnessed the strong dissonance between the common narrative told in Jamaica’s local news outlets and the experience I had in its actual spaces. My manuscript explores this dichotomy by describing a recent walk I had through Jamaica’s streets, traversing its unique landscape while reflecting on my own subjectivity in the process. In doing so, I argue that rhetorical agents have the ability to support or subvert these universal narratives. However, one must also consider how our spatial encounters reinscribe the fluid and often precarious positionalities we find ourselves in as we move through different spaces over time.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2020-01-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv19i2pp81-105
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
rhetorical criticism
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (24) · 3 in this index

  1. Bachelard (1964)
    The Poetics of Space
  2. Barnett (2017)
    Rhetorical Realism
  3. Barnett (2016)
    Rhetorical Ontology, or How to do Things with Things
     ↗
  4. Bilefsky (2011)
    For New Life, Blacks in City Head to South
  5. Boyer (2019)
    Man Found Dead in Abandoned Gaudily-Painted Food Truck in Queens
    Daily News
Show all 24 →
  1. Clark (1998)
    The Extended Mind
    Analysis  ↗
  2. Certeau (1980)
    The Practice of Everyday Life
  3. Dickinson (2002)
    Joe's rhetoric: Finding authenticity at starbucks
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Gannon (2017)
    Cuomo Earmarks $10M for Jamaica
    Queens Chronicle
  5. Jamaica (2019)
    About Us
  6. Kern-Jedrychowska (2017)
    Methadone Clinic Makes Jamaica Corner 'Very Sketchy' Locals Say
  7. Latour (2005)
    Resembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory
     ↗
  8. Lefebvre (1995)
    The Production of Space
  9. Dickens (2014)
    Public Transportation Ridership Report
  10. Moretti (2015)
    Joe Moretti Kisses Jamaica Goodbye
  11. (2014)
    Counties Where Racial Diversity Is Highest-and Lowest
  12. Reynolds (2007)
    Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering Difference
  13. Purvis (1997)
    A Dictionary of American History
  14. Rice (2014)
    Digital Detroit
  15. Rickert (2013)
    Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunements of Rhetoric Being
     ↗
  16. Rivers et al. (2011)
    Ecological, Pedagogical, Public Rhetoric
    College Composition and Communication
  17. Walsh et al. (2017)
    Forum: Bruno Latour on Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  18. Whitman (1862)
    Brooklyniana
  19. Walker (2017)
    Jamaica's AirTrain-hugging Tower gets Huge Boost for the City
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    Navigating platform algorithms: Global south feminist activists’ rhetorical and composition practices in digital advocacy on social media ↗
    Kalpana Shrestha
    rhetorical criticism social media gender and writing
  2. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    Legacies, commitments, and new challenges: The Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative interviews three generations of Computers and Composition editors ↗
    Ali Alalem; Alyse Campbell; Thais Rodrigues Cons; Funmilola Fadairo; Nicole Koyuki Golden
    rhetorical criticism collaborative writing digital rhetoric
  3. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    How Baldwin's voice moved Cambridge: Activation contours, mimesis, and a computational approach to rhetoric's sensorium ↗
    David M. Rieder; Michael R. Jackson
    rhetorical criticism
  4. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly May 2026
    Andrew Carnegie and the Rhetorical History of Business and Professional Communication ↗
    Joe Edward Hatfield
    rhetorical criticism teacher development professional writing archival research
  5. Written Communication May 2026
    Tuning In: Rhetorical Attunement as a Methodological Practice for Collaborative Research ↗
    Amber Hedquist; Liliana Caughman; Claire Lauer
    rhetorical criticism collaborative writing