Children’s Biographies of African American Women: Rhetoric, Public Memory, and Agency

Abstract

and makes its argument through attention to physical element. A book whose corporeal language performs its own subject matter, Editorial Bodies is a delight to read in its playful and rich associativeness, epitomizing many aspects of the ancient practices of composing. Along the way, it collapses a number of unnecessary dichotomies by demonstrating their mutual complementarity: between oral discourse and text, orality and literacy, composition and finished product, oratory and poetry. What speech begins is perfected by writing; what writing produces attains fulfillment in speech. The book would make a great adoption in any graduate course on classical rhetoric, literacy studies, archival methods, as well as material rhetoric.