To be honest I got so involved in my personal reading of Emotional Bullshit that I almost forgot to post about readings for class.
I found this interview between Andrea Lunsford and Gloria Anzaldua very fascinating. I could not believe how much she was talking about Voice. Yes, I know Voice has become this huge thing to me, but it was really fascinating to see her take on Voice. Lunsford used a quote by Anzaldua to open up with and it says, "I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue—my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence" (1401). I simply love this quote because it says so much about who she says in so few words. Yet her main word is voice. This allows us to see that Voice comes in many varieties. For example, I write from a white voice, a lesbian voice, a woman's voice, a college graduate voice, etc. Really what this did for me was to open up my eyes to see how much voice really does crossover disciplines.
If I am being 100% honest, I struggled with the idea that voice carried over into other disciplines. I am not quite sure why, but I did. After reading this interview and just that opening quote alone, I stand corrected. I now completely and totally see how voice moves. I never thought about the different communities I am associated with and how each one of these communities affects my voice.
I was having a conversation with someone tonight, who is college educated, and she never truly thought about how different voices sounded in papers. This got her wheels turning and now she says she is going to be so much more conscious of voice in different things she reads. I find it so interesting that many people do not realize how much voice truly does impact anything we read.
One thing I absolutely loved about Anzaldua was the fact that she sits on so many different boards for magazines because she is one of the few trying to push the boundaries and open up these magazines to different types of voices. It is very exciting to me to see that someone finds this so important, because I feel after many of the conversations held in our class, so many of us feel the same way. I am just giddy about the fact that she has become so popular in Composition because she does dare to push the envelope and dares to push for changes that are long overdue.
Rene,
ReplyDeleteI am really with you on this one. I, too, am a writer who has really struggled with the concept of "Voice," though maybe in ways different from you. As I have made abundantly clear this semester in many of my blogs and most of our classroom discussions, I have ALWAYS been a rule follower. I have been a rule follower in many aspects of my life, and that quality carried over into my writing. I am the type of student who will hear one comment, suggestion, rule, etc. from a professor - even if it is not directed toward me or a critique of anything I have personally written - and will remember it and want to abide by it for the rest of time. I can't let things go! For this reason, developing a voice has been a real struggle for me.
Until taking this class, I always told myself things like: "If you write in your own voice, you can't write correctly or academically;" or "Using Voice in writing is makes your work seem too casual, and you won't be taken seriously;" or "You can't use Voice without breaking grammatical rules." Though I have heard, read, and talked about Voice a number of times throughout my academic career, it wasn't until this class that I really started coming out of my shell. I think that it has really helped me to read articles and narratives written by highly acclaimed rhetors and realize that "legit" writers feel that Voice is so important. Knowing that other authors and professors utilize the element of voice in their own writing has really helped me to let go of all of my hang-ups. I have never been criticized by any professor for not writing in my own voice nor for my work being too "bland" without it, but I now see what a positive impact Voice can have on all kinds of writing, even then "professional, academic" writing I previously thought Voice would ruin.
I love all you had to say about this article and share your thoughts. If you have not already, you should read Andrea's blog for the week. She responded to this article as well and had some rather interesting things to say!
Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!
Susie