Listening to African American Call Narratives (original) (raw)

2020, Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture

With this special issue of Listening, we wanted to examine African American call narratives. While literature in the field of communication on call narratives is scant, research becomes even more negligible when focused on African Americans. This is surprising because if one is to study the African American rhetorical tradition in any serious way, one will come across many accounts of call narratives. Enslavement narratives, nineteenth-century African American women preacher narratives, African American biographical treatments, and a host of other writings all have elements of call in them. While scholars have acknowledged these call narratives, they have not studied them rhetorically. Therefore, this issue asks and explores: What are the rhetorical effects of call narratives? What do they propose to do and how do they in and of themselves function as pieces of rhetoric?