Advances in the History of Rhetoric Jan 2015

“I Took Up the Hymn-Book”: Rhetoric of Hymnody in Jarena Lee’s <i>Call to Preach</i>

Paul A. Minifee

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through examining Jarena Lee’s employment of hymns in her spiritual autobiography, The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel, I demonstrate how hymnody, a largely understudied literary genre in rhetorical studies, proved a critical instrument in authenticating her spiritual conversion and validating her qualifications to serve as a ministerial leader. Using Chaim Perelman’s concept of “presence” and recent research in neuroscience (on the brain and music) I show how Lee’s excerpts of the nineteenth century’s most popular hymns create an aural ambience reminiscent of a worship service that engages her Christian readers’ pathos and sense of piety in order to disengage their prejudice against her race and gender.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2015-01-02
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2014.954756
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Topics
race and writing argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Zimmerelli (2012)
    “The Stereoscopic View of Truth”: The Feminist Theological Rhetoric of Frances …
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Atkinson et al. (2008)
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    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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    Walking in light, walking in darkness: The story of women's changing rhetorical…
    Rhetoric Review
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