Telling Political Lives The Rhetorical Autobiographies of Women Leaders in the United States

by Marshall, Brenda DeVore; Mayhead, Molly A.; Anderson, Karrin Vasby; Dobris, Catherine; Gutgold, Nichola D.; Plec, Emily; Sheeler, Kristina Horn; Short, C Brant

• ISBN13: 9780739119488
• ISBN10: 0739119486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-24
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

This book investigates the autobiographical writings of Barbara Jordan, Patricia Schroeder, Geraldine Ferraro, Elizabeth Dole, Wilma Mankiller, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Christine Todd Whitman. These eight women represent the diversity that permeates the cultural backgrounds, life adventures, and ideologies women bring to the political table. From differences in race, class, and geographic location to variations in personal and family experiences, religious beliefs, and political ideology, these women illustrate many of the divergent standpoints from which women craft their lives in the United States. Each chapter focuses on the autobiographical text as political discourse and, therefore, as an appropriate site for the rhetorical construction of a personal and civic self, situated within local and national political communities.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Women's Autobiography as Political Discourse	p. 7
Getting from There to Here: Political Rhetoric and African American Orality in Barbara Jordan: A Self-Portrait	p. 15
From Housework to House Work: The Political Autobiographies of Patricia Schroeder	p. 55
The "Feisty" Feminist from Queens: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of the Autobiographies of Geraldine Ferraro	p. 73
Just Like "Azaleas in the Spring": Elizabeth Dole as a Daughter of the South	p. 95
All Our Relations: Wilma Mankiller's Rhetoric of Feminist Ecology and Indian Sovereignty	p. 109
The Personal Is Political: Negotiating Publicity and Privacy in Hillary Rodham Clinton's Living History	p. 131
Madeleine Albright and the Rhetoric of Madame Secretary	p. 147
Finding the Sensible Center: Christine Todd Whitman's It's My Party Too as Activist Autobiography	p. 167
Conclusion	p. 185
Bibliography	p. 187
Index	p. 203
About the Contributors	p. 209
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