QQC

“The rhetorical tradition has readily accepted those secondary accounts of Socrates’ influence, teaching, and beliefs, yet the same cannot be said about any female counterpart. Why not?”

Why is the female counterpart different than the tradition?

QQC

Knowledge is created not by the act of observing, Foucault says but through “relations… between institutions, economic and social processes behavioral patterns, systems of norms, techniques, types of classification, modes of characterization: and these relations are not present in the object” (RT, 1433)

I found this quote the most interesting. What is the most valuable way of knowledge to learn, is it different for everyone?

Blog post #5 Dan

     Anzaldua's style is characterized by hybridizing multicultural, ethnic, and linguistic experience while making it all accessible to the audience which it does not privilege. Since her style prioritizes certain influences, she consciously opens it up to all audiences so that the message of her text can be open to all audiences regardless of privilege or background. This works for her style because of the breadth of experience that she has in life with different background and personal social history. Given the variety of lives which she can speak for, she has mastered all of the appropriate vernaculars and terminology necessary to extrapolate the details she is trying to explain. The effect of switching between the widely different styles leaves me out from certain passages, so without an annotation I am only granted the understanding of the topic that the author intended for me to see. Perhaps she knew that English speakers would need to see one message and bilingual speakers another. I am curious to read an annotated edition of her writing.

Blog Post 5

Gloria was a very interesting person with such a unique style. Her work really stood out to me, especially because she's bilingual. She portrays her experiences in a graceful and impactful way. She was throwing into American culture, and had to adjust quickly. She does a great job of switching back and forth from Spanish to English. She doesn't leave the audience out of her works. Her style made me feel compassion for her as it shows how hard it was for her. When I was reading I felt confused and found myself jumping mostly to the English speaking parts. This makes me relate with her as she most likely only wanted to speak Spanish.

Blog Post #5- Kelly Chamorro

In the last year alone I have gone out of my way to take courses in college that are based around women's literature and latino literature. I wanted to shape my college experience around being hispanic and Latina, but it was harder than I thought it would be especially being and english major. The rules and the meta that the English language must adhere to didn't fit my character. It felt like I was trying to be someone I wasn't, trying to sound smart speaking in English only, trying my best to work on my "Miami" accent. Reading about Anzaldua's life, her background and her fight for her education and the education of other immigrants made me feel represented. The way she didn't back down from her Chicana culture despite institutions like the college she attended trying to force her hand. It felt empowering reading her work. Being able to read both the spanish and the english portions of it felt like a reminder of my own authenticity, that there is a place for people in the inbetween, in the "borderlands" as she put it. It felt really good, finally, to read someone that gets it, that I can personally relate to, even moreso because I'm in college myself. The way she writes is beautifully unapologetic and I found myself in a way rooting for her(?) as I kept reading. 

Blog

This was a very interesting piece to read. I felt that Anzaldua possessed a really unique and personal writing style that I really related to.  I liked how she used her native language (Spanish) as well as English in order to give two different perspectives. These layers really draw the audience in perfectly; her style of rhetoric makes it easy to associate with her writing. I thought it was interesting how strong her urge to write was. "When I don't write images for several days, weeks, or months I get physically ill" (RT, pp.1594). Anzaldua was a fascinating person to learn about; her writing style was amazing

Anzaldua Blog Post- Gamarra

What stood out to me in regards of Anzaldua's writing style was her dynamic use of the written text as a way to showcase the indefinite boundaries of her mestiza heritage.
"The first time I heard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word "nosotras," I was shocked. I had not known the word existed. Chicana uses nosotros whether we're male or female. We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural. Language is a male discourse." (RT 1586)
 This quote showcases her understanding of the rhetoric of language, how discourse is controlled by dominant narratives, the malleability of history, the female experience, Latino experience, and even her singular narrative. Her commentary relies of the fluctuation of storytelling, which allows the reader to feel the dynamic aspects of her life  as well as her awareness of accepted academic subjects. The use of a poetic tone, quotes, autobiographical retelling, and the Spanish language create such a rich and personal experience. This experience manages to be so singular yet tell the story of an entire group of people. When reading Anzaldua I found myself drawn to her multiple layers. I think this exemplifies mestiza rhetoric. Her writing also shows the need for the culmination of composite ways of experiencing life or what she calls Nepantilism. Her rhetoric was effective due to my background as someone who speaks Spanish and experiences Hispanic culture constantly. I may not be Anzaldua's primary audience however, I found her story extremely touching and was able to see fragments of myself in it. Anzaldua's writings of her experience want to be acknowledged without the need for taming or assimilation. I admire this in her rhetoric and I think this is what makes it so effective and memorable. 

Blog #5 - Story Foster

Unsurprisingly, this is one of my favorite things we've read. It's been one of the only readings I've been able to get through without bullying myself into it (which isn't to say the other stuff has been bad, just not my cup of tea). I love Anzaldua's code switching - it makes her work seem much more real than some of the other theorists we've read. I don't speak Spanish (I speak Portuguese, which is similar but still very different, and I know some Spanish from exposure but I've never formally studied it), so it was hard to get through those sections, but it would have felt wrong to translate it. Sitting with the discomfort and difficulty of reading these few Spanish passages felt like part of the point - that's a discomfort many people have no choice but to deal with every day, and it's a privilege to exist without shame in my native language. 

Blog Post -Jeffrey P

Gloria's writing has a very unique style that sets her apart from most writers, as well as mirror her own identity and experiences. Coming from a different culture and being forced very harshly to assimilate to American culture has had a very negative impact on her. This can be seen as her writing style switches back and forth from English to Spanish, with many of her bad memories are explained with English. While many of the Spanish sections were tough to understand, I really love Gloria's style because I think she is using it to intentionally reflect her role in society. As she writes, she switches back and forth between English and Spanish, much like she had to switch her identity growing up depending on the setting she was in. Her style definitely made me feel for her, because she is obviously very loving of her personal culture and feels like it has been violently ripped away from her, and she has been torn between sticking to her origins and assimilating to America, which shows itself very uniquely in her style.

Kevin Blog Post

I have come across Anzaldúa and her writing in a class I have taken before during the Spring 2019 semester. We talked at length about the concept of the borderlands and how it is addressed in literature and in the Latinx culture. The writing of Anzaldúa is most characterized by her use of her native languages, balancing between mostly English and Spanish. Her writing occupies a space between languages, much like the borderlands occupies a space between countries and cultures.

I think this sort of style is very appropriate for the sort of writing and the subject matter that Anzaldúa writes about. One can only truly take on such a complicated subject with the full understanding and experience Anzaldúa has and with the approach of utilizing multiple languages and cultural references in order to establish herself as someone who is authentically a member of the mixed culture that is associated with the borderlands. I like the poetic nature and seamless flow from English to Spanish and back again. I was born and raised in Miami as was my wife. Her Mother came to Miami from Cuba and her Father came to Miami from Chile. I would argue that South Florida, especially Miami, occupies a space similar to the borderlands of the American southwest. The sort of exchange Anzaldúa has with her reader reflects the conversations I have with my in-laws and the discourse I overhear when out and about in Miami. As a result, Anzaldúa's writing creates a type of nostalgia for me which I think is why I enjoy it.

Blog Post Rayunna

The features of Anzaldua's style is the fact that she is bilingual. She showcases that but she doesn't leave us (the non Spanish speaking people) in the dark, she translates for us. I think it shows her background and who she is. I think it does show her point with her being different and being a women writing, she can show she isn't just the typical. I didn't like switching between languages because I tended to skip the Spanish part and just focus on the English since that is what I understood. She kind of confused me as an author on what she was trying to show us as readers. She wouldn't reach only English speakers with the switching in languages. I never know how to read Spanish but when she uses it, I tended to just skip the whole thing and go to where the English is to start again which complicates the reading because something could've been said in Spanish that I can't understand so it makes my focus derail. She's a great writer but the other language randomly throws me off. 

Blog Post july 28

While reading Gloria Anzaldua's text, I was initially confused how frequently she used her native language and also English when communicating to her audience. Then I gathered that she is essentially trying to reach across multiple social and cultural views. Being a female theorist, she delves deeper in to the feministic side of things. I would like to know more about her childhood and what makes her interested in her studies.

Blog post - Jackie

After reading Gloria Anzaldua’s text, her style is much different than what one can expect. I personally liked how she switched from English to Spanish because it shows her own personal identity, but I did not fully understand what she was trying to say. Reading the overview about her helped me to understand that she believes that in order to get her point across she has to “communicate effectively across cultural, sexual, and class boundaries” (RT pg 1584). Her main argument in the reading seemed to be pointing to how people are censored in how they express themselves. By switching between Spanish and English she accomplished both goals.