Revisiting Racialized Voice: African American Ethos in Language and Literature
By David G Holmes PhD
* Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
* Number Of Pages: 144
* Publication Date: 2004-01-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0809325470
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780809325474
Product Description:
Revisiting Racialized Voice: African American Ethos in Language and Literature argues that past misconceptions about what constitutes black identity and voice, codified from the 1870s through the 1920s, inform contemporary assumptions about African American authorship. Tracing elements of racial consciousness in the works of Frederick Douglass, Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and others, David G. Holmes urges a revisiting of narratives from this period to strengthen and advance notions about racialized writing and to shape contemporary composition pedagogies.
Holmes considers how the white hegemony demarcated black identity and reveals the ways some African American writers unintentionally reinforced the hegemony’s triad of race, language, and identity. Whereas some of these writers were able to help rethink black voice by recognizing dialect as a necessary linguistic discursive medium, others actually inhibited their own efforts to transcend race essentialism.
Still others projected race as a personal and social paradox which complicated racial identity but did not denigrate African American identity. In recalling the transition in the 1960s from voice as metaphor denoting literary authorship to one connoting student authorship, Holmes posits that rereading the 1960s would enable a mediation between literary and rhetorical voice and an empowered look at race as both an abstraction and as rhetorically indispensable.
Pointing to the intersection of African American identity, literature, and rhetoric, Revisiting Racialized Voice begins to construct rhetorically workable yet ideologically flexible definitions of black voice. Holmes maintains that political pressure to embrace a "color blindness" endangers scholars’ ability to uncover links between racialized discourses of the past and the present, and he calls instead for a reassessment of the material realities and theoretical assumptions race represents and with which it has been associated.
Summary: Racialized Voice, Does it exist?
Rating: 4
The written "voice" is no less important to an author than a wheel to an automobile. Without each respectively, neither would run, nor be given any amount of recognition. The context and background is often what makes each particular author worth reading. To deny one's experiences as integrally involved in producing any form of literature would be utter nonsense. It is this authorial makeup that Dr. David G. Holmes focuses his book "Revisiting Racialized Voice: Aftrican American Ethos in Language and Literature".
The very first chapter begins with a depiction of Frederick Douglass, as both a prolific writer, as well as an African American surrounded by a thoroughly racist worldview. Holmes uses the example of Douglass, not simply because of his superior writing, but most notably his struggle to "transcend race" through his writing. It is with this foundation that Holmes describes a plethora of black writers who have struggled with this very same problem. By describing various black authors from various movements (Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement) we see a continual struggle of self-identification. This problem manifested itself in societal issues presented by black writers. The argument between W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes over the portrayal of African Americans shows the labors of a marginalized group attempting to build its own reputation through the written word. The story of Zora Neale Hurston combines the background of gender and African American makeup to the
And while attempting to show this inability of African Americans to transcend race, he is concurrently showing all of humanity's inability to do so. By the end of the work, it becomes clear that all of our background, including our race, gender, ethnicity, etc...will affect the "voice" manifested in our writing.
Throughout his book, Dr. David G. Holmes explores the broad range of responses African Americans presented in respect to their race. Holmes shows the desperate tensions that each great African American author faced during a time of intense racism, and the vast degree of denigration incurred by Black culture.
My major problem in respect to this book occurs in the overall makeup of the book. At times it seemed as if Holmes had wavered from his original intent, moving from one tangent to the other. I would have liked to have seen more coherency from point to point, connecting the ideals of race and voice more often than occurred throughout the book.
Overall, Dr. Holmes establishes himself as both a scholar of rhetoric and African American History in "Revisiting Racialized Voice: African American Ethos in Language and Literature".
Summary: Voice, where at thou?
Rating: 3
In Revisiting a Racialized Voice: African American Ethos in Language and Literature, David G. Holmes attempts to firstly, "discuss the racialization of voce from the 1870s to the 1920s", "trace through representative authors, the evolution of black voice from it literal to metaphorical use in literature and composition" and finally "afford African American students more flexibility in constructing their own racialized ethos in writing.", Dr. Holmes attempts to explain race and voice especially black voice rhetorically and metaphorically without actually pinning them down with exact definitions. Holmes refers to these constructs as slippery metaphors influenced by identity and society. He believes that authors are limited by the expectation of society which leads them to fail in finding their own ethos. There is a "search for the inner public voice".
He employs the work of several historically great black authors to support his argument. Holmes focuses on the negative and positive aspects of each author's employment of voice and how they struggled with adopting a personal identity in the face of societal labels. Chapter one portrays Frederick Douglass who is shown struggling with the tension of projecting an American voice while being labeled as a black voice.
Chestnutt, a man of mixed race had to deal with the one drop rule. He was classified as black even though his heritage involved much more.
Du Bois struggles with balancing both his private and public voice.
The book closes with a summary of pertinent points from previous chapters. The author connects with his audience with a few lines of advice such as recognizing that African American culture is influenced by both European and African cultures. He urges the audience to understand that there might always be a struggle between one's personal identity and what the outside world sees.
Dr. Holmes voice rings clear throughout the book. He is very much involved in code switching where he switches fluidly from a formal to an informal voice and back. He writes very much in the way that he speaks.
I found the book rather inaccessible in terms of the language. It is written for a graduate and academic audience but still I believe some of the terminologies employed might be over the heads of most people. Also, unless one is specifically studying African American Studies or a related field, some of the history and literature mentioned might lose you.
Summary: Reading Voice
Rating: 4
In Revisiting Racialized Voice, Holmes tackles the difficult and elusive concept of black voice. The work begins with a clear and understandable, three-fold statement of the rhetorical intent in the Preface: to examine the relationship between literature, oratory and composition in the explication of black voice; to trace the evolution of black voice; and to afford black students more flexibility in constructing their own racialized ethos in writing(...)(...)Holmes by no means seeks to deny the subjective nature of black voice. Thus, in his own writing, he can neither deny, nor even escape, his own black voice and subjectivity. Nor would he want to. And any writer willing to put his own voice, and self, out on the table for examination and critique deserves credit, or, at the very least, a few appreciative readers.
Summary: Single White Male Seeks African American Voice
Rating: 3
"Revisiting Racialized Voice: African American Ethos in Language and Literature" by David G. Holmes raises and investigates important questions about "black voice," African American Ethos, and the relationship between the two. Holmes traces, (and chases) the elusive definition of black voice by citing examples from prominent writers who struggled with this slippery metaphor.
Any definition of black voice is, according to Homes, "questionable at best," because race is biologically impossible to define, and voice is dynamic, cryptic and often malleable. The term black voice is flawed because it begs questions such as: "Who is black enough to write in the black voice?", "Do all African Americans qualify?", and "If so, do they lose their `blackness' when they borrow a different voice?".
Instead of defining the black voice, Holmes cites examples of African Americans in literature that struggled with the "blackness" of their own inner public voices (or for the scholars: the African American-ism of their internalized ethos.)
Holmes shows how Frederick Douglass tried to transcend racialized voice. Douglass wanted to be an American writer, not a Negro writer, but sadly, his contemporaries saw Douglass as far too intelligent to be black. Holmes attributes Douglass' hindrance to the "assumed inherent, intellectual inferiority of the African" (14) that permeated Post-Enlightenment American society.
Charles Waddell Chesnutt is presented as another person who suffered with the tension of racialized ethos in writing. Chesnutt -a man of mixed racial heritage- who considered himself neither black nor white, struggled with an unwritten "One Drop Rule," that automatically led people to label him. Chesnutt was a man who tried to avoid being classified as a "black writer," or a "white writer," a man who rejected "black voice," and desired "in-betweenness."
In Chapter 4, Holmes presents W.E.B. Du Bois as an example of what can happen when one voice (be it ever so educated and intelligent,) is heralded as the black voice. Du Bois embraced the Victorian idea that European culture was superior to all others, and therefore inadvertently discredited black folk culture. Clearly, according to Holmes, America must resonate with many black voices, not just one.
Personally I enjoyed the fact that "Revisiting Racialized Voice" is not just a historical collection of black voices; it is also an experiment by Holmes. Holmes attempts to showcase the tension between his formal "African American Ethos," and his less formal, "black voice." Holmes experiments with the voice that he is chronicling, and interrogates and plays with it by code switching. Readers should be prepared for academic terms such as; pejorative, hermenutic, and polemical next to words like nigger, nigga, and niggaz. I imagined a collage of contrasting African American voices coming together. Imagine: Frederick Douglass and Malcom X, chillin' (academically of course) with Richard Pryor, Fat Albert, and the rest of the Cosby Kids. (Okay, the book's not that funny, but that is what I imagined.)
On a critical note however, the book left me hungry for more of the voice it was seeking to describe. I felt that though Holmes uses a few words and examples that could be described as academically playful, at times his black voice is hindered and overpowered by his African American Ethos. He uses academic language that is dense, cumbersome, and dull. Clearly this book is geared towards graduate students and academics, but I would argue that words like "literati," "shibboleth," and "heteroglossia," impede any reader's understanding of the text, instead of aiding it. I also felt frustrated with the fact that black voice was discussed and experimented with, but never defined. I understand that according to Holmes this definition is an impossibility, but I did not feel like the book brought me any closer an understanding of the concepts of black voice and African American Ethos. It seemed to me that Holmes raised many questions, about racialized voice, but did not provide many answers. It seemed to me that he remains content to encourage students to find their own way of constructing ethos, by exploring race rhetorically on their own. Frankly, I still have many unanswered questions about voice, and I feel ill-prepared for my next "revisit."
Summary: Revisiting
Rating: 4
The intent of Dr. David Holmes book, Revisiting Racialized Voice African American Ethos in Language and Literature is to bring attention the construction of the African American ethos. He challenges us to revisit the metaphor of the "Black voice." He examines the codification in the use of literary concepts such as "voice" and "race." Both terms are vague in definition but in some ways have been defined within the American culture. However, Dr. Holmes also looks at them rhetorically. He uses several authors such as: Frederick Douglass, Emerson, Francis Harper, Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and others when examining this notion of the "black voice." By examining these authors he is explicating what constitutes "Blackness." He critiques their use of the black voice drawing upon their intended and unintended establishment and use of the "Black voice," while at the same time, taking into account that race and voice are both influenced by identity, and society.
In chapter one Dr. Holmes questions, "Who authenticates Black voice" (9)? He brings in Fredrick Douglass who as an African American wanted to project an American voice more so than the Black voice, even though for many he was known as the "Black voice." Douglass was in the same realm of oratory as White men, but there was still this notion of his "Blackness" being projected in his works. Dr. Holmes deals with the historical and social construct of race in this chapter. He sets up the racialized image. The literary is linked with race and thus-it is hard for many African Americans to transcend race in the literary field because they are so inextricably linked.
Chapters two through five deal with the notion of race and voice being elusive and culturally charged. He asks, "What constitutes 'blackness'" (26)? He examines the usage of African American vernacular English (AAVE). He also deals with the notion of identity throughout the Harlem Renaissance. He shows critical shifts in Black identity that signify the projection of "Black Voice." Also, in Chapter three, he focuses on Charles Chesnutt's approach at reconsidering the racialized voice. This was due partially to him being of mixed blood. Holmes indicates that the personal may influence the projection of rhetorical ethos, that "...racialization is complex" (52). Even through characters in a piece authors may construct a certain type of racial identity, whether intended or unintended. W.E.B. Du Bois also dealt with the ambiguousness of racial identity. Du Bois's personal and intellectual tension challenged the composition of race. Both authors brought to light the tensions of European and African American identity and culture. In chapter five, he introduces Zora Neale Hurston into this discussion as a sort of middle grounds for analysis.
I consider chapter six to be the explicatory chapter that sizes up all of Dr. Holmes critiques and conclusions. He speaks directly to his audience. He explores the overlapping of Western and African influence in the African American Culture. He concedes that race and voice are heavily influenced by outside exposure. At the same time, he proposes that students be exposed to the rhetoric of African American folk tradition beyond the historical context but also rhetorically as well.
In Revisiting Racialized Voice African American Ethos in Language and Literature, Dr. Holmes presents Black voice as a "slippery metaphor." In the projection of the "Black voice" he finds there is this certain irony that renders reason to revisit certain authors and literature. In writing this book he is engaging and challenging the "Black voice" while establishing his own individual ethos. He is showing that as a Black writer, even he cannot really define or solidify the "Black voice." But at the same time, he has a personal voice. This book is clearly written for the scholarly crowd. |
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rinciples and Parameters"/Minimalist framework. Alison Henry analyzes various Belfast English constructions and their Standard English counterparts to gain insight into both English syntax and syntactic theory in general. In the process, she makes valuable data on Belfast English readily available for the first time.