Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Fuller, and Angelina Grimke: Symbolic convergence and a nascent rhetorical vision

Applying Symbolic Convergence Theory to Pre-service Teachers’ Responses to Mathematics Education Organizations’ Statements on Racial Violence

“…Though the bulk of SCT studies look at fantasy themes, rhetorical visions, and the chaining of messages sent by one organization or individual, SCT's conceptualization of rhetorical communities and prior studies (e.g., Kroll, 1983;Huxman, 1996) afford the rhetorical space for scholars to use the messages of more than one entity to examine the existence or shift in rhetorical visions, particularly when they are tied to the early stages of the life cycle of rhetorical visions outlined above. For example, using the rhetoric of two different women's movement organizations, Kroll (1983) explained how the fantasy themes, types, and rhetorical visions of the women's movement in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul required subtle but necessary shifts to advance the movement beyond the consciousness-raising stage.…”

“…In doing so, Kroll thoroughly outlined how the fantasy themes and types advanced by each organization led to the success or failure in building support for or opposition to the organizations' rhetorical visions. Huxman (1996) argued that cross-movement rhetorical analyses using SCT as a guide also have a place in advancing knowledge because they allow scholars to find the conceptual core of multiple movements. To make her point, Huxman used the rhetoric of three pillars of the women's movement, operating in different eras of the movement, to demonstrate how their problem congruence as well as their congruence on ideational and stylistic levels undergirded and helped advance the rhetorical vision "codified in the expression of rights at Seneca Falls" (p. 26).…”

Perfecting the Rhetorical Vision of Woman's Rights: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Howard Shaw, and Carrie Chapman Catt

“…Adrienne Rich (1980) aptly described the harm in treating the work of feminist leaders as if each were singular. 1 Thus, while this essay was especially indebted to the separate rhetorical analyses of Stanton (Campbell, 1980(Campbell, , 1993, Shaw (Linkugel, 1963;, and Catt (Birdsell, 1993 ), it is more closely aligned methodologically with a few studies engaged in movement or rhetor comparisons (Campbell, 1998;Huxman, 1996;McGuinn, 1978;Solomon, 1991;and Wolff, 1989).…”

“…Elsewhere, I have argued for the value of comparative critique in assessing the combined efforts of three pioneering reformers for woman's rights-Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Fuller and Angelina Grimkepowerful rhetoricians who never met and whose circumstances were worlds apart, but whose rhetorics converged to form the nascent rhetorical vision of Seneca Falls (Huxman, 1996). Like that study, this one is undergirded by the assumptions that a movement's success is enhanced by multiple, diverse, yet complementary leaders, and that the appreciation of an individual rhetor's worth within a movement is magnified by treating hislher efforts as a combined effort with other rhetors for the cause.…”