Anzaldua & Campbell

Both Campbell and Anzaldu bring to rhetoric the perspective of the female character and the female consciousness.

Anzaldu especially focuses on both a female and a cultural change in rhetoric, not explicitly stating anything about rhetoric, but noting changes in perspectives in shifts of language, such as Standard English to Chicano Spanish or dialects. I found it especially intriguing that she speaks to the legitimacy of her language; first she acknowledges the importance of language, particularly her own cultural language, by saying “I am my language” (pg 1588). Then, she says, after seeing poetry written in Tex-Mex for the first time, that “I felt like we really existed as people.” (pg 1589). The legitimacy of expression and writing for Anzaldu seems to be potent, and interestingly has shifted from previous rhetoric, where written word was not necessarily considered to be true rhetoric, in the sense of persuasion. However, Anzaldu makes it clear that for her expression, poetry, and art, in written text, is very much rhetorical, and refers to the writer as a “shape-changer,” (pg 1592) which implies that through art and poetry, as well as uninhibited self-expression, persuasion can happen.

She also speaks to not only writing but images as a powerful rhetoric, adding to the conversation tools other than language to signify meaning. Additionally, she adds to the conversation an internal process to rhetoric, or what Campbell speaks to with the notion of consciousness raising. “I am the dialogue between myself and el espiriti del mundo” (pg 1594) really grasps this point and takes it home.

Both Campbell and Anzaldu seem to not only embrace women as a part of rhetoric in the sense that women should not only participate in rhetoric but would fill a void in rhetoric as it is without women participating. They both speak to the idea of the consciousness, or internal process of rhetoric, that not many rhetoricians prior to now have touched on. The idea that rhetoric, language, and voice comes from within a person as something powerful is a change only a woman can make. :)