"Memoria Is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourses of Color" is an article written by Victor Villanueva--from College English 67.1, suggesting an academic audience in mind--that talks about "the connections between narratives by people of color and the need to reclaim a memory, memory of an identify as formed through the generations" (Reading About Writing, 172). Using memories, stories, poems, and the writings of the writer himself to figure out who he is as an individual, "from where, playing out the mixes within," he begins writing down what happened to him in the past; a story on "how racism continues and the ways in which racism is allowed to continue despite the profession's best efforts" (Reading About Writing, 170). Yet, as he writes down this story, where his knowledge of language was used to describe people he knew well, not literacy concepts that are easily citable, the text within those memories and the unpleasant memories themselves began an conflict of presentation; a means to express his frustration with the respect it deserves. As he puts it, "Memory simply cannot be adequately portrayed in the conventional discourse of the academy," so as a respond, pondering on how it differs from the logocentric Aristotelian idea, he realizes on the impact of that knowledge of language (Reading About Writing, 172). Ethically, to create the "essential element in the intellect - cognition and affect," a voice-- one that strides for emotional appeal will attract greater impact on audiences--must form, and if successful, the tensions that underline many members of specific discourses will come to attention, leading into actions that puts the memories of those members into a more sympathetic context they can easily accept; new memories to enrich old memories into contexts that reflect a community, not a specific member (Reading About Writing, 174).
However powerful negative memories are, a danger lurks among the subconscious that Vilaneuva didn't mention. Unless the person's memories was used to combat for future events, where remembrance of one event comes in handy where a dire event of epic magnitude happens, a lack of strong pathos (or emotional honesty) for the events around those memories will undermine those remembrance into thoughts that might not reflect the truth of what actually happened. So as the individual becomes "compatible with the identities they envisioned for themselves," based on the memories they think they got themselves into, they now have the ability to become involved with communities that can be an extension of those memories; react those events in any way they can (Writing About Writing, 525). Therefore, the communities' dedication to a specified goal can vary--the "identity kit" that corresponds with the interpretations of specific memories of somebody--, where a primary Discourse could focus on changing the world for the better of society, or a secondary Discourse (or nondominant Discourse) becomes available as a mean to get away from the dire events, allowing the individual to develop a set skill for his own benefits. Even if the tension or conflict forms out of a sense out of whatever or not one event did not cause a bigger event to unfold, what the memories create inside those Discourses set up new memories that will either enrich or disrupt the original purposes of the first set of memories, which is then extended into the memories of the member inside those communities will remember for their own purposes, positive or negative.
So what are the primary and secondary Discourses that define Vilaneuva? Using Gee's definitions, where a primary Discourse "constitutes our original and home-based sense of identify" and a secondary Discourse involve "institutions in the public sphere, beyond the family and immediate kin and peer group," simplifying a complex purpose, it'll be classified as this (Writing About Writing, 485):
Primary Discourse: -The "contradictory consciousness" discourse that tries to live among "mixes of races that make for no race at all yet find themselves victim to racism" (Writing About Writing, 176).
Secondary Discourses: --The academic discourse that provides "resources the conventions of citation make available" (Reading About Writing, 172).
&
--"The ideocentric discourse that displays inductive or deductive lines of reasoning, a way to trace a writer's logical connections" (Reading About Writing, 172).
With these Discourses, I feel like I learned a better understanding on how discourse work in favor for the individual instead of the community at large. All in all, this article told me that being aware of the honestly of your emotions can not only do good for the community that someone is in, but when you think about it, it's really a spiritual adventure for the person himself. If that person thinks that his/her purpose of being in that community was really because of memories of the past, to be themselves in a community that is open to subjects they think about, or because the subject materiel actually interests that person not for aesthetic reasons, but for pure satisfaction on just his/her behalf. It's finding that balance that compels the reading for outright clarity, which makes the whole article a pleasure to read. If there's more like it in the future, I'm up for it, either as an individual, or as a member of my Writing 1510 Class community.
No comments:
Post a Comment