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University Distinguished Lecture
Utopian Desire and Radical Action
in
African American Women’s Essay Writing
Abstract
In this presentation, I begin with the obvious point that, as human beings, African American
women dream. With that springboard in mind, I also assert that their dreams
have vibrantly constituted a dimension of their waking states as well. Recurrently,
they have dreamed worlds of possibility that don’t exist but could, and
the lingering force of those dreams has helped to animate the ways in which
they have habitually engaged in ethos formation for writing and action, especially
with regard to their longstanding commitments to social reform. Further, I
posit that the analytical framework, which permits us to see this rhetorical
move, is shaped by a specific consideration of their uses of the essay to articulate
a pattern of desire and radical action with the general goal of making a better
world. To illustrate these points, I will use both nineteenth and twentieth
century African American women writers as I discuss utopian desire, social
reform, and radical action.
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