Date of Award
Spring 2004
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Rhetoric & Comm Studies
First Advisor
Dr. Mari Lee Mifsud
Second Advisor
Dr. Erin Sahlstein
Third Advisor
Dr. Liz Sheehan
Abstract
My overarching concerns are for the place and power of women in rhetoric and democracy. This concern developed during my study of classical rhetoric, when I noticed an obvious absence of women in rhetoric. For example, John Poulakos and Takis Poulakos state that any "ordinary person" could play a role on the political stage in Athens (34). This reference to "ordinary people" is proof that women were made invisible because, as George A. Kennedy explains, in classical Athens, democracy was only for "an assembly of all adult male citizens" (16). Male citizens, then, were actually rather extra-ordinary. Because democracy was only for "an assembly of all adult male citizens," and because rhetorical theory developed to meet the needs of the new democracy, it developed to meet the needs only of "an assembly of all adult male citizens."
Recommended Citation
Fox, Lindsey M., "Illuminating a space for women and rhetoric" (2004). Honors Theses. 252.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/252