• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • UA Graduate and Undergraduate Research
    • UA Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • UA Graduate and Undergraduate Research
    • UA Theses and Dissertations
    • Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of UA Campus RepositoryCommunitiesTitleAuthorsIssue DateSubmit DateSubjectsPublisherJournalThis CollectionTitleAuthorsIssue DateSubmit DateSubjectsPublisherJournal

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    About

    AboutUA Faculty PublicationsUA DissertationsUA Master's ThesesUA Honors ThesesUA PressUA YearbooksUA CatalogsUA Libraries

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    The Rhetoric of Hysteria in the U.S., 1830-1930: Suffragists, Sirens, Psychoses

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    azu_etd_10231_sip1_m.pdf
    Size:
    1.280Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Description:
    azu_etd_10231_sip1_m.pdf
    Download
    Author
    Miller, Georgianna Oakley
    Issue Date
    2009
    Keywords
    activism
    hysteria
    rhetoric
    sexuality
    suffrage
    women
    Advisor
    Miller, Thomas P.
    Committee Chair
    Miller, Thomas P.
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Publisher
    The University of Arizona.
    Rights
    Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
    Abstract
    Foucault's argument in the short work "Of Other Spaces" suggests that rhetoric can be defined as how language is used to create and foster power inequities in hierarchical systems. Further, rhetoric enables individuals or groups to gain credibility and mobility within those systems--and to deny that same credibility and mobility to others. The nineteenth and early twentieth century was a period of transition for women, particularly middle- and upper-class white women. During this time, activist activities conducted by and on behalf of women were considered a threat to U.S. society. As a result, rhetoric was used with the intention of limiting American women's credibility and mobility.Although women had always been considered physiologically and intellectually inferior, diagnoses with a variety of "female-only" ailments became more common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For men threatened by women's increasing political activism, this became a very effective method of arguing that women should be denied access to power. Because women were considered outside of the structure of society by virtue of a physiological state they were unable to change, then by definition women could only be regulated, and never regulate. Moreover, the postbellum expansion of civil society into a mass-market structure was an extremely efficient means of distributing that message.In this work, I use Foucault's "science of discipline" as the heuristic to analyze these debates. Foucault lists numerous categories and subcategories that can fall under the science of discipline--far too many to productively and coherently apply here. Therefore, I have modified the science of discipline into a four-pronged process. Applying this heuristic to the definition of rhetoric put forth here, I argue in this work that the medical profession, the magazine industry, and activist women engaged in dialogue with one another within the context of the suffrage movement. I argue that these specialized discourses responded to and built upon ideological allegiances, both explicitly and implicitly, to address the issue of woman's place in society--the "woman question."
    Type
    text
    Electronic Dissertation
    Degree Name
    Ph.D.
    Degree Level
    doctoral
    Degree Program
    English
    Graduate College
    Degree Grantor
    University of Arizona
    Collections
    Dissertations

    entitlement

     
    The University of Arizona Libraries | 1510 E. University Blvd. | Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
    Tel 520-621-6442 | repository@u.library.arizona.edu
    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2017  DuraSpace
    Quick Guide | Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.