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92 The Rhetoric of Black Voice 92 6 The Rhetoric of Black Voice: Implications for Composition Pedagogy T HE METAPHOR “BLACK V OI CE,” WHETHER A P P LI ED to a journalist, a novelist, or a student writer, is based on two elusive ideas: voice and race. Hence, any concrete conclusions about the nature and function of black voice are questionable at best. Without this metaphor, however, one can appropriate a distorted view of both the material import and rhetorical efficacy of African American writing and culture. Ideally, alternative paradigms for black voice should acknowledge race as both abstract and rhetorically indispensable. On the whole, rhetoric and composition scholars must become and remain more intentional in complicating the link between race and writing . Otherwise the field of composition studies can inadvertently reify the validity of racial boundaries codified from the 1870s through the 1920s and, theoretically by some, inverted during the 1960s. Granted, some rhetoric composition scholars, like Darsie Bowden, have noted that the late 1960s through the 1970s marked a pivotal point in the etymology of written voice, one in which the metaphor was broadened to include composition students. Indeed, in The Mythology of Voice, Bowden claims that prior to the 1960s, voice literally signified oral presentation (dating back to classical rhetoric) and figuratively signified authorial stance in traditional literary narrative. Bowden substantiates this claim by pinpointing a correlation between the sociopolitical challenges fos- The Rhetoric of Black Voice 93 tered during the 1960s against all established institutions and an emerging student-centered pedagogy. This pedagogy would ideally replace current traditional orthodoxy with an exploratory, neo-Romantic approach . As a result, teachers would honor the plethora of individual student perspectives with the authorial designation “voice.” I concur with Bowden’s major thesis that, for the most part, this neoRomantic legacy explains why voice as explicated currently within composition studies is a valuable yet problematical metaphor, one worthy of the most rigorous, ongoing critique. And even though The Mythology of Voice captures some of the larger cultural currents that led to the inception of voice as a metaphor within composition studies, the book neglects to give adequate consideration to the marginalized groups that came to voice during the 1960s. Bowden does include a chapter that broaches the connections between women’s studies and voice, a necessary understanding to be sure; however, she merely grants passing acknowledgement to the nuances of voice and race during the 1960s. Hence, for my purposes, one of Bowden’s major themes, namely how the voice metaphor evolved beyond the purview of literature to encompass composition , must be complicated with a critical reflection on African American texts. Black Arts Theory and Student Rights Pedagogy The Black Arts movement, which lasted from the 1960s through the 1970s, was the second major African American literary movement. Considerably more political and, as I shall argue shortly, more narrowly conceived than was the Harlem Renaissance, the social importance of the Black Arts movement nevertheless can be hardly overstated. This artistic movement shaped and was shaped by a critical sociopolitical consciousness. These were the days of boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, student demonstrations, and martyred civil rights leaders, and the days for passionate spokespersons: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, Angela Davis, and Huey Newton, among many others. Thus the leaders of the Black Arts movement gave voice to the struggles, hopes, and joys of the black masses, to legitimize through literature their language, music, rituals, and traditions. In this way, these writers sought to honor black folk culture as Hurston had done, their political agenda and focus on urban blacks notwith- 94 The Rhetoric of Black Voice standing. Indeed, protest that results in revision of mainstream culture constitutes one of the major traditions in African American letters, the other being imitation of Euro-American discursive practices that leads to cultural assimilation. Even in terms of art exclusively, however, Black Arts writers had the right to protest the exclusion of literature written by people of color from the canon. Other than scattered references to folk literature and a few black poets, for example, until 1971 articles in mainstream scholarly magazines generally failed to critically review works written by African Americans ; the widespread fame of Richard Wright would constitute one of the few exceptions. Similarly, the National Council of Teachers of English published a survey indicating that through the 1950s, a person could presumably do an extensive study of the body of American literature without reading one...

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