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Chryssa Monteiro

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1102

30 January 2023

Genre Analysis and Intertextuality on African American Rhetoric

As everyone may know, writing has been around for hundreds of thousands of years and

yet every day there is more and more to learn about it. Writing can be dissected in multiple

different ways in order to understand the main purpose of a piece of text. This paper, specifically,

is focusing on two out of many parts of a text, genre and intertextuality. Genre can be described

in various ways, but to put it in simple terms, it’s almost like the categories of writing, for lack of

better words. In order to analyze the genre of a text, there are smaller pieces within it and these

are known as moves. This is where exigence comes into play. Exigence is essentially the “...

circumstance or condition that invites a response…” (Carroll 48). This is what gives the writing a

purpose, the “why” for the text. The genre is the category of the text as a whole, but the moves

are what put that text into a certain category. Each move serves a purpose within a text because,

most of the time, rhetors do not simply just throw things into a text “just because”. Along with

genre, there is intertextuality, which as described by James Porter, is essentially the principle that

everything involving writing comes from one main source (Porter 34). Basically saying that it’s

all connected strings coming from one. In the sense of writing, intertextuality is when ideas from

other people are incorporated into a text. Not all thoughts are original and that’s why practically

every single piece of text has intertextuality.

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The article “Memorializing the Civil Rights Movement: African American Rhetorics and

the International Civil Rights Center and Museum”, by Julie D. Nelson, from the journal

Rhetoric Review is a great example of genre and intertextuality used within a text. To provide a

foundation for the main points, this article is based on African American Rhetoric and to explain

the importance of using it more often in today’s society. This is done by going back to the past to

revisit the Civil Rights Movement and also incorporating this historic event within a museum.

As described before, genre in writing simply means using moves to categorize writing; or

specific writing formats. The article used for this example is about a specific kind of rhetoric and

the way that it is formatted can help explain the information for maximum comprehension. This

article was written for a specific audience, or discourse communities, that include African

American rhetors, those interested in museums and most definitely the rhetoric and writing

communities. These will each be explained throughout each section of this article as it is

analyzed.

As every article usually has, there is an abstract, which gives a brief overview of the

article, and the works cited, giving credit to sources used. Besides those two main components,

there are also subcategories that are incorporated within this text. For example, right after the

abstract there is a bit of background information that is provided for the reader before getting

into the main topic of the article. The purpose of this background is to give a bit more context as

to why this article was even written in the first place, the origin of this information. In this case,

the background information is the Civil Rights Movement, which is the time in which African

American rhetors started to really put themselves out there with their writing. Then it goes into

another subcategory that targets more of the main topic of this article, which is African American
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Rhetoric. This section is there to explain the importance of African American Rhetoric and how

its use in writing should be recognized more due to other types of rhetoric taking over and

pushing it into the shadows. The next subcategory in this article is where the museum discourse

community comes into play. There is an important building, located in North Carolina, that is

talked about and referenced as the ICRCM, International Civil Rights Center Museum. It is

mentioned in the abstract, as well as its own section within the article. Its repetition within the

text marks it as an important part to what is being said. A museum is known to have historical

values inside that are open to the public to view them. In this article, the purpose of the ICRCM

is to add on to the “why” of using African American Rhetoric. One of the last final things that is

brought up within this article are the “western paradigms” which are essentially patterns seen

within the rhetoric that is mainly used now rather than in the past (Nelson 53-54). The reason

that is brought up is to explain what happened to African American rhetoric and why it’s not

being used as much as it should be. It provides reasoning as to what happened over the years that

caused this divide.

Other than genre, intertextuality plays a major role within any form of text. Oftentimes,

not all thoughts are unique and original, but many may still want to incorporate them into a piece

of text because it enhances the writing as a whole. Credibility is important in intertextuality

because it can either make or break the article as a whole. If an author only provides information

that they think or know of, they may not seem very trustworthy. People trust those who provide

facts and proof when displaying their ideas. When the intertextuality principle is incorporated

within a text it leads towards building the author’s credibility. In this article, Nelson incorporates

various ideas from others such as from Phil Pratta and Malea Powell, Stephen Browne, Edward
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Rothstein. By using these, it seems to add a captivating layer to this piece due to there being

more than just one person’s thoughts, ideas, opinions, etc.

The first source, Remembering Crispus Attucks: Race, Rhetoric, and the Politics of

Commemoration, written by Stephen Browne, is about the “... art of memory-making…”

(Browne 185) when it comes to America’s history. Nelson uses Browne’s perspective on history

to add on to her argument that the use of African American rhetoric has diminished over the

years due to there being a change in how everyone thinks. In Browne’s article, he explains how

the West has changed the public memory to remember the events that made Americans who they

are known to be now, instead of events such as the Civil Rights Movement. This is important to

incorporate in Nelson’s text because, when giving that background information to the reader, the

obstacles that many had to go through should be acknowledged to show what they have fought

for to get to where they are. This source most definitely supports Nelson’s argument.

The next source that made a good contribution to Julie Nelson’s article would be the

Introduction to the Special Issue: Entering the Cultural Rhetorics Conversations, by Phil Pratta

and Malea Powell. This text actually goes hand in hand with a specific discourse community

which is the museum community. Pratta and Powell talk about how cultural rhetoric is important

and that the reason so many different types of rhetoric aren’t used as much anymore is because of

the westernization of the world. Nelson uses their argument to help explain why the ICRCM is

important, and its purpose within this article. Going back to the previous source that talks about

changing and creating memory, Nelson connects both of these sources to explain that museums

such as this one are important to “... reassert public memory…” (Nelson 55). It helps to bring
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back the original facts that were hidden due to westernization. This source contributes to the

overall article as a support for the argument.

One last source that is used quite often within Nelson’s article is the Four Men, a Counter

and Soon, Revolution, by Edward Rothstein. Rothstein is used within this article as an argument

that is against what Nelson says. Nelson uses what Rothstein says to then provide a counter

argument. In his writing, he shows a “... western fondness for representation, linearity, and

logocentrism…” (Nelson 54), which explains why his argument would be the opposite of what

Nelson has to say. Rothstein talks about there being a lack of information within the museum,

ICRCM. Because of this, he believes that there is too much targeting emotion when people view

the exhibits within the museum, leading to most of them being exaggerated (Nelson 54). This

goes to show that not everyone will see the exhibits for what they are, rather they will judge

everything that they can because they don’t agree with the meaning behind it all. Rothstein’s

point of view helps to strengthen Nelson’s argument because she can counter argue with it to

explain the importance of African American history and how it impacted rhetoric today.

Nelson used all of these sources to take her writing to the next level. These are what

make and build intertextuality. Credit must always be given where credit is due and Nelson has

done that by using these ideas and making sure to say who these are from. Not only did she use

sources that supported her main point, but she also used sources that were the opposite point of

view. This allowed her to provide even more information that added on to her credibility.

Every piece of text or writing belongs in a certain genre, and that can be easily

categorized by simply analyzing the purpose of each move within it. Along with that,

intertextuality is what allows that work to be taken to another level of credibility and just simply
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makes the piece, as a whole, more intriguing. Multiple minds are better than one, that’s why

sometimes, even though one may come up with an excellent idea, they could use the help from

others to enhance that into something greater. Without a genre, there wouldn’t be a purpose for

the writing, it would be meaningless because it wasn’t written for anything. Both intertextuality

and genre are important when it comes to any form of writing or text, because they are what

provides the foundation to the purpose of that piece.

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Works Cited

Bratta, Phil, and Malea Powell. “Introduction to the Special Issue: Entering the Cultural

Rhetorics Conversations.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture,

vol. 21, 2016. Web.

Browne, Stephen. “Remembering Crispus Attucks: Race, Rhetoric, and the Politics of

Commemoration.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 85, no. 2, 1999, pp. 169–87.

Carroll, Laura B. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis.” Writing

Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 1, 2010, pp. 45-58

Nelson, Julie D. “Memorializing the Civil Rights Movement: African-American Rhetoric in the

International Civil Rights Center and Museum.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 40, no. 1, 2021,

pp. 46-58

Porter, James E. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 5, no. 1,

1986, pp. 34-47

Rothstein, Edward. “Four Men, a Counter and Soon, Revolution.” The New York Times, 31 Jan.

2010. Web.