The erotic as rhetorical power : archives of romantic friendship between women teachers / Pamela VanHaitsma.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

VanHaitsma, Pamela, author.

Series:

Intersectional rhetorics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lesbian teachers.

Women educators.

Lesbian couples.

Feminist theory.

Queer theory.

Feminism and rhetoric.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"The Erotic as Rhetorical Power/i offers a queer feminist history of rhetoric that recovers the civic contributions of women teachers in same-sex romantic friendships. Extending perspectives from ancient rhetoric to nineteenth-century progressivism, from Audre Lorde’s Black lesbian feminist theory to its present-day uptakes, Pamela VanHaitsma conceives of the erotic as an interanimation of desires that, in being passionately shared, becomes imbued with the power to forge connection and foment change.VanHaitsma’s theory of the erotic as rhetorical power emerges from both historiographic and imaginative engagements with more than twenty archives of romantic friendships between women: Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam, Irene Leache and Anna Wood, Gertrude Buck and Laura Wylie, and Rebecca Primus and Addie Brown. VanHaitsma considers how even as the erotic in these romantic friendships fueled the women’s rhetorical activities toward transformational ends—whether working toward the abolition of slavery, greater educational access, or voting rights—it also energized rhetorical activities that sometimes challenged but also reinforced troubling power dynamics. iThe Erotic as Rhetorical Power/i uncovers the erotic’s significance as a conflicted site of power that is central to rhetorical theory and history as well as feminist and LGBTQ studies."-- From JSTOR.

Contents:

A radical erotic of antislavery affection: Abolitionist lecturing and freedmen’s teaching, 1848–1893

Interlude: A school girl again

A conservative erotic of emulating beauty: Commonplace rhetorics and belletristic instruction, 1868–1900

Interlude: My husband

A progressive erotic of sapphic egalitarianism: Communication and leadership among equals, 1897–1922

Conclusion to interludes: Future archives

Conclusion: Erotics of rhetorical power.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed April 16, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: VanHaitsma, Pamela. Erotic as rhetorical power.

ISBN:

9780814283905

081428390X

9780814283714

0814283713

OCLC:

1458753316

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license