Date of Award
Spring 2015
Project Type
Dissertation
Program or Major
English
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
First Advisor
Cristy Beemer
Second Advisor
Thomas Newkirk
Third Advisor
Christina Ortmeier-Hooper
Abstract
This dissertation explores how disenfranchised nineteenth-century women used sensational rhetoric to circumvent obstacles that prevented them from publicly discussing issues related to the American Civil War. A kind of pathetic appeal, sensational rhetoric is the use of shocking, exciting, and thrilling language and/or subject matter for persuasive purposes. Although sensational rhetoric was employed in newspapers and novels, I focus specifically on how women utilized this strategy in the genre of memoir. The personal accounts of Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Belle Boyd, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Pauline Cushman, Mary Ann Loughborough, Elizabeth Keckley, and Susie King Taylor describe their enthralling experiences as spies, prisoners, crossdressing soldiers, field nurses, etc. Scholars who have researched these memoirs often explore the accuracy of the narratives or their literary qualities. I, however, examine these memoirs through a rhetorical lens, investigating why, how, and in what ways they worked to promote the writer’s particular agenda. These memoirs, I conclude, were intended to be more than entertaining stories. Functioning as an “available means,” sensational rhetoric allowed these women, in recounting their astounding experiences, to persuade reluctant readers to support their particular political and social causes. Contributing to scholarship devoted to the recovery of nineteenth-century women’s rhetorical voices, my dissertation ultimately calls scholars to reclaim sensational rhetoric as a valuable persuasive strategy.
Recommended Citation
Wilde, Patricia Ann, "BY HER AVAILABLE MEANS: THE SENSATIONAL RHETORIC OF WOMEN’S CIVIL WAR MEMOIRS" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 2195.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2195