Popular Culture Review 30.1
“ hermeneutics of restoration ” wherein the critic approaches her subject “ in the hope of revelation ” ( 32 ). To reap this superior fruit requires real effort , actual interaction , discourse , and collaboration . These are the moves that would have saved Nanette and every other Other , along with Gadsby ’ s feelings and integrity . These moves involve what Felski calls “ shrugg [ ing ] off the mantle of knowing skepticism by embracing a renewed sense of idealism , purpose , and utopian possibility ” ( 188 ).
Just as Woolf ’ s interlocutor claimed to want a war-free utopia , Gadsby claims to want social acceptance , harmony , and peace for herself and others like her�those victimized and marginalized . To usher in this utopian society , people must hear and heed Woolf ’ s mandate that portends Foss and Griffin ’ s “ new rhetoric ” wherein she instructs ,
... we can best ... prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods [, Hannah Gadsby and institutions of power ,] but by finding new words and creating new methods . We can best help you to prevent war not by joining your society but by remaining outside your society but in cooperation with its aim . That aim is the same for us both . It is to assert “ the rights of all�all men and women�to the respect in their persons of the great principles of Justice and Equality and Liberty .” ( 170 )
Just as the Broadway musical “ No , No , Nanette ,” experienced an ebb and flow in popularity over time , so do ideologies . Fuller ’ s 1840 commitment to dialogic inclusivity was taken up by Woolf ’ s 1938 directive to practice a new rhetoric , something other than the past patriarchal rhetoric which
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