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Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0000 Order Number 9001953 Muted voices &om antiquity through the Renaissance: Locating women in the rhetorical tradition Glenn, Cheryl Jean, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1989 Copyright ©1989 by Glenn, Cheryl Jean. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 MUTED VOICES FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE RENAISSANCE: LOCATING WOMEN IN THE RHETORICAL TRADITION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Cheryl Glenn, B.S., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1989 D issertation Committee; Approved by A. A. Lunsford E. P. J. Corbett Adviser y S. J. Kahrl Department of English Copyright by Cheryl Glenn 1989 For Isabel DuSang, who taught me to read and write. For Anna Seitz, who taught me to watch and listen. 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to Edward P. J. Corbett and Stanley Kahrl, whose sensible suggestions and supportive criticism helped me rewrite parts of the manuscript. I appreciate, too, the steady encouragement of Rolf Soellner. But I am especially grateful to my adviser, Andrea Lunsford, for her unwavering fa ith in me and my project. My gratitude extends to Jon Olson and Jamie Barlowe Kayes for their generous and thoughtful response to my work-in-progress. They read every word of every draft, sometimes willingly. Finally, I thank Virginia DuSang Hamblin, Terry Glenn Campbell, Gene Glenn, Dorinda Glenn, Kathryn Liggett, Dorothy Liggett Pelanda, Mariah L iggett, Sebastian Knowles, Murray Beja, Jim Phelan, Lisa Ede, Bob Connors, Beverly Bruck, Sue Lape, and Dorla Oen—the not-so-muted voices in my life. I l l VITA September 25» 1950 ....................................Born - Marion, Ohio 1972 ...................................................................B .S ., The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 8 1 ...................................................................M.A., The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio 1981-1988 ...................................................... Teaching Associate, Lecturer, Administrative Assistant, Research '^sistant, English Department, The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio 1988-Present ................................................. Presidential Fellow, The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS Books; St Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing (with Robert J. Connors), New York: St. Martin’s P, 1989 Annotated In stru c to r’s Edition for the St. M artin’s Handbook, New York: St. M artin’s P, 1989 Chapters: "Rhetorical Theory and the Teaching of Writing" (with Andrea Lunsford), Essays in the Teaching of Secondary English, eds. Gail E. Hawisher and Anna Soter. Albany: SUNY P, 1989 (Rpt. in the Annotated Instructor’s Edition for the St. M artin’s Handbook, 8-15) "Responding to Student Writing" (with Sue V. Lape), Annotated In stru c to r’s Edition for the St. M artin’s Handbook, 22-25) A rticles: "Writing Science and Discovering Insights," The Writing Instructor 5 (1986): 112-18 "The ’C ontrolling’ Nature of Language—Two Perspectives" (with Thomas Murray), The South Eastern Conference on Linguistics Review XI (1987): 19-42 IV "Sounds and Sweet A irs; City Waits of Medieval and Renaissance England," Essays in Medieval Studies 4 (1987): 119-42 "CCCC Convention," GSCC (Graduate Students in Composition and Communication 1 (1988): 3 "Women's Empowerment/Women's Enslavement: S tories from the History Of Literacy," Freshman English News 17 (1989): 29-31 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Rhetoric, with Andrea Lunsford and Edward P. J. Corbett Minor Fields: Composition, with Frank O'Hare; Medieval Literature, with Stanley Kahrl; Renaissance Literature, with Rolf Soellner TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION....................................................................................................................i i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. i i i VITA.................................................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. EXPLAINING THE SILENCE........................................................................16 Introduction ........................................................................16 Locating Women in His-story ................................................. 17 Systematic Silencing .............................................................. 37 Women's Education ....................................................................... 42 Reclaiming Women's Voices ..................................................... 48 I I . CLASSICAL RHETORIC CONCEPTUALIZED: ARTICULATE MEN, MUTED WOMEN ...........................................................53 Introduction ................................................................................ 53 The Ascendence of Rhetoric: Practice before Theory ..................................................... 55 The a-eek Rhetorical Tradition ........................................ 65 Woman's Place in Q-eek Society: Historical and Literary ..................................................... 81 The Roman Rhetorical Tradition ........................................ 88 Woman's Place in Roman Society: Historical and Literary ..................................................... 93 I I I . PAGAN ROOTS, MEDIEVAL FLOWERING: WOMEN'S CONTINUED, "NATURAL" SUBORDINATION ...................... 103 Introduction ................................................................................ 103 Medieval Cultural Dynamics ................................................. 104 Woman's Place in Medieval Society: Literary and Historical ..................................................... 108 VI The Medieval Rhetorical Tradition .................................... 117 Veiled Voices; Women in the Rhetorical Tradition...................................119 IV. INSCRIBED IN THE MARGINS: RENAISSANCE WOMEN IN THE RHETORICAL TRADITION .................. 171 Introduction ................................................................................ 171 Renaissance Cultural Dynamics ............................................. 173 Woman's Place in Renaissance England: H istorical and L iterary ...................................................... 178 The English Renaissance Rhetorical Tradition . , 200 Marginal Voices: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition...................................214 V. CONCLUSION................................................................................................ 256 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 268 vn INTRODUCTION The world taught woman nothing skil[l]ful and then said her work was valueless. It permitted her no opinion and said she did not know how to think. It forebade her to speak, and said the sex had no orators. Carrie Chapman Catt, 1902 Problem According to received knowledge, no woman has influenced Western rh eto rical tra d itio n . While men have worked together in the public arena to build evolving yet enduring theories and praxes of rhetoric, women have dedicated themselves to creating the subculture of their private domain, the home. Women have been excluded from rh eto rical practices and displays ; and thus our version of history, our knowledge of both men's and women's thoughts and experiences, comes almost entirely from the writings of men. La Rochefoucauld was right—"History never embraces more than a small part of reality"—for none of the men who have written historical rhetoric texts and secondary rhetorics mention even one female rhetorician or female p ractitio n er of rh eto ric. Left unexamined, rhetorical