Traversing the Democratic Borders of the EssayScholarship on the personal essay has focused on Western European and U. S. varieties of the form. In Traversing the Democratic Borders of the Essay, Cristina Kirklighter extends these boundaries by reading the Latin American and Latino/a essayists Paulo Freire, Victor Villanueva, and Ruth Behar, alongside such canonical figures as Montaigne, Bacon, Emerson, and Thoreau. In this fascinating journey into the commonalities and differences among these essayists, Kirklighter focuses on various elements of the personal essay self-reflexivity, accessibility, spontaneity, and a rhetoric of sincerity in order to argue for a more democratic form of writing in academia, one that would democratize the academy and promote nation-building. By using these elements in their teachings and writings, Kirklighter argues, educators can play a significant role in helping others who experience academic alienation achieve a better sense of belonging as they slowly dismantle the walls of the ivory tower. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Montaignes and Bacons Use of the Essay Form | 10 |
Essaying an American Democratic Identity in Emerson and Thoreau | 11 |
Achieving a Place in Academia through the Personal Academin Essays of Victor Villanueva and Ruth Behar | 12 |
The Personal the Political and the Rhetorical Montaigne and Bacons Use of the Essay Form | 15 |
Brief Biography of Michel de Montaigne | 17 |
Montaignes Departure from Traditional Rhetorical Writing | 18 |
Francis Bacon and the Essay | 34 |
Freires Social Pedagogy and Its Tie to the Elements of the Essay | 81 |
Accessible Writing and the Freirian Essay | 86 |
Freire and the Issue of Spontaneity | 92 |
The Essays Elements of Sincerity and Truthfulness in Freires Writings | 96 |
Achieving a Place in Academia through the Personal Academic Essays of Victor Villanueva and Ruth Behar | 103 |
Conversations with Victor Villaueva on Bootstraps and His Influence in Rhetoric and Composition | 106 |
Villanuevas Use of SelfRefelection and Accessibility in Bootstraps | 108 |
The Movement from Mimicry to Spontaneity in Villanuevas Academic Writings | 114 |
Essaying an American Democratic Identity in Emerson and Thoreau | 39 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | 43 |
Montaigne Plutarch Emerson and the Essay | 45 |
The Essay Education and the Formation of a US National Identity | 51 |
Emerson and The American Scholar | 52 |
Henry David Thoreau | 58 |
Historical and Political Background of Walden | 62 |
Early Book Reviews Walden and Its Significance to the Essay | 65 |
The Essay as PoliticalCultural Critique in Latin America | 71 |
Freires Place in Latin America History | 79 |
Sincerity and Acceptance in Villanuevas Scholarship | 117 |
Ruth Behar and Her Rise to Academic Prominence | 122 |
Behars Use of SelfReflexivity and Accessibility to Reconcile Her Ethnographic Identity in Academia | 124 |
Behars Growing Resistance to Becoming a Translated Academic | 128 |
Behars Use of Sincere Writing to Uncover Her Truth as an Ethnographer | 130 |
Conclusion | 133 |
Works Cited | 137 |
| 149 | |
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acade academia Academic of Color academic writing American Scholar audience authenticity Bacon become believed bell hooks Bootstraps Cicero Cicero's Ciceronian contemporary create critical critique cultural democracy democratic demonstrate dialogue discourse dispositio element of self-reflection Emerson and Thoreau emphasis English studies essay form essay predecessors essay scholars essay scholarship essay's elements ethnographic form of writing Freire's Freirian genre human identity individual influenced inspired intellectual knowledge language Latin American essay Latin American essayists Latino/a academics Letters to Cristina literary lived experiences Michel de Montaigne Montaigne Montaigne's nation Oppressed Paulo Freire Pedagogy of Hope personal essay personal essayists personal form personal writing Peter McLaren philosophical Plutarch political practice Pyrrhonian skepticism Pyrrhonism quest readers Renaissance reviewer rhetoric role Ruth Behar scholarly skepticism social society sonal Spanish spontaneity style taigne theories tion traditional truth understand Victor Villanueva Victoria Ocampo Walden Western European William Gass writing form