Brummett, Barry Whispers of a Racial Past Uncovering

Brummett, Barry. “Whispers of a Racial Past: Forms of White Liberal History in The Horse Whisperer. Uncovering Hidden Rhetorics: Social Issues in Disguise. Ed. Barry Brummett. Sage: Los Angeles. 2008.

“The Myth depends upon constructing people of color in certain ways. The Myth constructs an image of Otherness in people of color, based upon certain recurring attributed dimensions of those people. As The Myth is reindiviualated in particular texts, stock characters must be created to embody those stereotypical dimensions” =B

If The Myth is constructing people in certain ways, then perhaps it constructs identities so as to encourage the “othered” to identify with it. Burke’s theory of identity does state that we identify with others and this draws us into being convinced. Also, if the myth is identifying one sector of society in a particular way, then it follows that identity is one which is propogated by another sector thereby creating the identification with the myth in the ways that Burke proposes.

“One recurring dimension of Thy Myth is the emasculation of people of color. Strong males and, more important, male principles of control, law, and dominance are understood by The Myth to be recessive if not downright absent” (52). =E

“The Myth’s assertion of a lack of connection and communication among people of diverse backgrounds, and suggests that the snippy social manner of the matriarchal Others may be largely to blame for the disjunction” (59). =E

This statement is so reminiscent of the way conduct books are posed. The male writer often trying to come off as “mothering” the young women toward a behavior in order to “better” them and make them understand the “world”. It created and maintained that social disjunction placing young women on the outside and in positions of extreme distress.

“This study thus illustrates the importance of thinking about rhetorical homologies as highly adaptive engines for ordering social consciousness in the service of powier” (69).= E