In this dissertation I conduct a feminist recovery of the baby book as one kind of ordinary women's domestic rhetoric. I analyze the ways in which the baby book's evolution reflects changes in cultural practices over time and the means by which the baby book constitutes acts of potentially subversive agency in its power to resist patriarchal structuring. I classify the baby book within the ancient rhetorical genre of encomium, allowing us to perceive how a culture, situated in time and place, values the perception and presentation of an infant and the culturally-assigned role of the mother in the formation of that presentation. The genre of encomium must be redefined as an ongoing, dynamic, adaptive genre.I conduct an interpretation of more than the mere artifact, but of the production and experience of that artifact as well. Thus, this study establishes a unique and significant role for a de-reading methodology as a viable introduction and theoretical foundation to approaching domestic texts, involving self figuration on the part of the researcher and an empathic approach to reading that privileges a loving, appreciative standpoint.My analysis of over fifty baby books from 1885 through 2007 reveals that the role of the baby books and the role of the mother are assigned, to a great extent, by the definition of "family" and shaped by socioeconomic forces. Mothers subvert or comply with the directives from the publishers, thereby implying rejection of or compliance with the maternal script through such strategies as appropriation of space, inclusion of artifacts, and omission. This discovery expands our notion of agency in terms of the power of form, the role of the audience, and the connections to material and symbolic cultural context.My research establishes a line of inquiry into the material practices of production and simultaneously brings into view an array of texts that have been outside the conventional purview of rhetorical scholarship. For those who want to recover women's rhetoric and to extend an understanding of rhetorical praxis, baby books are a valuable primary and, until now, untapped source, as well as a "new" type of rhetorical evidence. / Department of English
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176565 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Haley, Jennifer M. |
| Contributors | Fleckenstein, Kristie S. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 300 leaves : col. ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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