Remembering Is the Remedy: Jane Addams's Response to Conflicted Discourse

Abstract

In The Long Road of Woman's Memory, Addams develops a theory of memory that accounts for the rhetorical function of reminiscence. Drawing on I. A. Richards's conception of rhetoric as the study of misunderstanding, this essay offers an analysis of Addams's theory in relationship to her attempts at rational discourse with a group of immigrant women who believed there was a “Devil Baby” in residence at Hull House. Her successes and failures during these conversations prompted Addams to consider the rhetorical function of memory as a theoretical tool both to understand and remedy discursive conflict.

Notes

¹I thank John Pell and Kelly Ritter for their invaluable feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. Also, I am indebted to RR reviewers Vicki Burton and Catherine Hobbs for their smart and constructive criticism. Finally, I thank Hephzibah Roskelly for introducing me to Jane Addams and inviting me to participate in the conversation.

²See Addams's essays “The Modern City and the Municipal Franchise for Women” and “Women and Public Housekeeping” for examples of how she develops civic housekeeping as a social philosophy.

³See both Marilyn Fischer and Heather Ostman on the role of maternalist rhetoric for Addams.

⁴For recent accounts of Addams's pragmatism, see Hamington (“Public Pragmatism”), Whipps, and Danisch. Seigfried's introductions to the Illinois editions of The Long Road and Democracy and Social Ethics together offer a thorough overview of Addams and the pragmatist tradition.