A Conversation with Nanette
old rhetoric employed by Gadsby at Nanette ’ s expense thrives on the “ rush of power ” ( qtd . Foss 3 ) with “[ t ] he value of the self deriv [ ed ] not from a recognition of the uniqueness and inherent value of each living being but from gaining control over others .” Foss and Griffin instead propose “ an environment that facilitates understanding , accords value and respect to others ’ perspectives , and contributes to the development of relationships of equality ” ( 17 ).
This new rhetoric was actually practiced and promoted by nineteenth-century American writer and social reformer Margaret Fuller who cultivated a multi-ethnic , transclass , transgender , transnational sensibility through her heterogeneous texts�bestsellers like Summer on the Lakes which painted a sympathetic portrait of Native Americans ’ plight under white colonization and Women in the Nineteenth Century which was the first American feminist manifesto . These books were loaded with what Jeffrey Bilbro calls “ rich cultural diversity ” inviting readers to “ engage in a dialectic , communal hermeneutic , one that might act as a check on self-serving , individualist interpretations and thereby contribute to a harmonious culture ” ( 64 ). Evidence of Fuller ’ s commitment to inclusivity includes her famous monthly subscription “ Conversations ” fostering dialogic interchange among women who were normally excluded from intellectual inquiry and discussion . Fuller ’ s texts are models of dialectical conversation between disparate groups , “ one Fuller curates in order to educate readers to be loving interpreters ” of one another . Fuller ’ s writing , only recovered and added to the canon in the last 30 years , models Foss and Griffin ’ s Invitational Rhetoric and champions inclusivity long before it was politically correct . Like Nanette , Fuller was silenced from the intellectual conversation because she didn ’ t have the power to speak for herself�she drown in a tragic shipwreck after which her
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