Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Form
Ida B. Wells-Barnett in “Lynch Law in America” is trying to persuade her readers to treat blacks and whites equally in America. She wishes that everyone would be given the opportunity to have a fair trial before they are punished for the wrongs that they may or may not have committed. The form that Well-Barnett uses is how she gets her point across to her readers. I think Ross Winterowd would feel that by placing her paragraphs in the order that she does with each transformational unit in cohesive order going back to events that have happened, to events that are happening, and then moving on to events that should happen, forms her article, and helps persuade the reader to feel the way she does on the equality topic.
Part Two:
I think it would be really interesting to study the discourse of homelessness—has there been an increase, why? What areas in America is homelessness more prevalent? Whose fault is it? I think my genre samples would have to come from a variety of different sources—some stating why it is the persons’ fault that they are homeless, some blaming the government and decreases in employment, and then some from examples of people that either were or are homeless in today’s society. In order to make these types of genres effective, I will have to make sure I do not fall into one extreme decision or another. I need to follow the rules of Kenneth Burke, and step back, hesitate, and exam each and every symbol and view point.
Burke's article sounds like it could be very helpful in your case. It would be interesting to look at the discourse between advocacy agencies and government agencies, or perhaps look at what might need to change in our discourse about homelessness to get further into solving the problem. I am wondering if it might help to narrow your topic to one kind of homelessness (e.g. veterans, women, people with mental illnesses) since this is such a broad topic?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if you might find the Lazere article helpful as well, as it deals with recognizing complexity (and this is a complex problem with complex discourse!). The "Reading Between the Lines" section could be quite helpful. Also, I have a book at home that is simply a collection of various homeless women telling their stories. Let me know if you want to borrow it, and I'll bring it back at Thanksgiving.