Abstract
The African American rhetorical tradition could be described as a shelter in an alien environment or as a way station on a long journey. A focus on ethos suggests that such a narrow approach to African American literature cannot do justice to these literary texts: how these writers employ images and symbols, craft and deploy examine identities, blend, criticize, and create traditions, explore contemporary issues, and create community. Because of cultural and racist narratives, African Americans could not simply use either the pre-Socratic or Aristotelian approaches to ethos in their fight for social justice. This essay demonstrates how a postclassical approach to ethos that draws on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and is focused on community-building and self-healing is central to the African American literature and rhetoric.
Highlights
In a provocative essay from 1997 entitled, “Home,” Nobel-prize winning author Toni Morrison compares living and writing in the United States as an African American woman with occupying a house rather than a home
The nation’s racial past is a source of trauma and a burden, and the African American community is scarred by this history, even if shared history offers a potential source of healing and solidarity
This essay demonstrates how a postclassical approach to ethos that draws on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and is focused on community-building and self-healing is central to the African American literature and rhetoric
Summary
In a provocative essay from 1997 entitled, “Home,” Nobel-prize winning author Toni Morrison compares living and writing in the United States as an African American woman with occupying a house rather than a home. The nation’s racial past is a source of trauma and a burden, and the African American community is scarred by this history, even if shared history offers a potential source of healing and solidarity Morrison describes her writing as part of an ongoing project to imagine “how to convert a racist house into a race-specific yet nonracist home” Throughout the essay, she reconceives race, racial signifiers, and the modern United State nation as potential dwellings in which African Americans must meet and live, write, think, speak, persuade, and create These dwellings could be haunted houses or nourishing homes of support and love. The essay concludes by considering why debates about racial character continue to the present day and why ethos remains an essential element of African American rhetoric and literature
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