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No! In Whispers is based on the assumption that dissent, particularly in literary writing, is not necessarily shouted. Rather, it is conveyed by means of persuasion strategies, through subtle transversal allusions and an undercurrent of moral analysis and protest, through what can metaphorically be defined as 'whispers' that penetrate the readers' conscience and are meant to promote change. The essays in this book explore the rhetoric of dissent in a range of texts that include letters, novels, poems and nonfiction, mostly focusing on selected works by such authors as Abigail Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Ovington, Toni Morrison, Adrienne Rich, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. The last two chapters, devoted to nonfiction, consider Edward Said's memoir and the debate about the New Musicology. The authors come from four different countries and have largely distinct cultural backgrounds and scientific interests; thus they analyze the statements of dissent from various angles utilizing different methodological approaches. They concur in outlining the image of a country that has been historically torn by the tension between what it is and what it was meant to be.
List of contents
Women's Dissent in Early American Writing, from Abigail Adams to the Seduction Novel - Regime Change: Semiotic Tyranny and Dissent in The Scarlet Letter - Dissent in Salvation: A Rhetoric of Uncertainty in Nathaniel Hawthorne - »These dark people who speak our language«: Mary Ovington and the Rhetoric of Evidence - Sounds of Silence, Violence, Madness in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Jazz - »So tell me about my country...later«: Strategies of Distancing in Adrienne Rich's The School Among the Ruins - 'The End Times Never End': Neo-Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Dissent in Contemporary American Fiction - Out of Place, at the Origins of Edward Said's Literature of Dissent - Dissenting Variations. The Rhetoric of New Musicology
About the author
Michele Bottalico, former Full Professor of American Literature at the University of Salerno, Italy, has published widely on early American literature, the 1920s novel, Chicano literature, odeporic literature and autobiographical writing. His latest work is a collection of essays on Italian American culture, which he edited in 2018.
