Throughout studying the three letters concerning the Contagious Disease Acts, several curiosities come to mind:
First, I am interested in gaining further information about the context surrounding the Acts. What other legislation was the British government writing and passing at the same time? Were there any other acts that dealt with public health? What about laws dealing with divorce rights? Were their other industrialized countries passing similar acts?
Second, how was medicine practiced? What where the newest advances in medicine? I'd like to read some of Nightingale's work, especially something about her views of the CDA's and women's health in general.
Third, how was the church/religious beliefs a part of writing, arguing for/against, and repealing the Acts?
Although these three questions deal mainly with historical content, and not the literary and rhetorical content, I believe that understanding the historical context of these Acts will allow me to formulate a deeper and more well-informed examination of the Acts through a rhetorical lens.
For my archival project, I would like to investigate the appeals to religion - perhaps religion as a trope - and look at how religion was used to argue for/against other public health legislation in the same time period. (Probably within the same decade.)
For further investigation, I will compare religiously based moral arguments to secular moral arguments.
The three critical essays that would possibly be helpful in this project are Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time" (to look at audience contruction, assigned sociatle roles, and time as a trope - since the arguments were specific to a certian piece of legeslation at a certain time), Campbell's "Man Cannot Speak for Her" (to examine women's letters to newspapers and other types of writing to see to what extent style is dependent on rhetorical situation), and Tompkin's "Sentimental Power."
Related materials from the Lilly Library, or one of the other Bloomington libraries, will include the original contents of the Contagious Disease Acts, Miss Garret and Mr. Hill's letters, and if available other public health legeslation, some of Florence Nightingale's writings and hospital records.
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Rebekah, the idea of examining "religion as a trope" in the CDA documents seems really unique. Obviously Killingsworth's chapters on tropes and kairos will be helpful, but if you find that Campbell and Tompkins aren't as helpful (i.e., because they are referring to the construction of much later periods or genres), what other searching might you do in JSTOR, Project Muse, or MLA Bibliography?
ReplyDelete-Dr. Graban
Rebekah, I agree with Dr. Graban..your ideas about religion as a trope is indeed unique! When we were both studying the Contagious Disese Acts, it seemed as if you were very knowledgeable about what topics and issues that you wanted to develop. Although, I don't understand the project much, I thought that Tompkins would of appied to these articles as well. Maybe you can research some of the secondary sources that were given to us and find other articles that may apply to religion and disease in some form within this time period. Since you are so aware of what you would like to do, it would be great if you could comment on my post if you have any bright ideas pertaining to the topics that I choose!!
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Yikes, I realized that I am WAY behind where I should be at this point. Guess I know what my plans for the weekend are! Anyway, my question has now become: What rhetorical and literary possibilities are created by viewing religion as a trope in three letters written to the Pall Mall Gazette concerning the Contagious Disease Acts? I am considering a few key areas: 1. Religion as justification for participating in public dialogue.
ReplyDelete2. Religion as a basis for argument.
3. Religion as a means to create connection between the author and audience.
4. Religion as a means to help the audience understand a concept.
I am limiting my paper to the CDA's rather than including other public health legeslation.
Rebekah, this seems like such a clear list. I think you've set yourself up well to gather evidences in the Pall Mall letters!
ReplyDelete-Dr. Graban