So that I don’t have to check this huge book out:
Enos, Theresa, ed. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication from Ancient Times to the Information Age. New York: Garland, 1996.
“Voice.” Debra L. Jacobs. 748-752.
Voice: “the representation of the writer in discourse.” (748)
“Other rhetorical terms related to voice that pertain to the representation of the writer include tone and stance, which refer to a writer’s attitudes toward audience and topic.(748)…But voice is a more inclusive concept than either tone or stance, and a more elusive one. None of these similar or related concepts adequately accounts for what is meant by voice, because voice more extensively encompasses notions about human subjectivity. In composition and rhetoric, contested assumptions about subjectivity are foregrounded in issues of voice concerning presence, agency, control, and text-ownership.” (749)
presence = authenticity of voice. “…an authentic voice is one that is thought to originate from within the writer’s inner self.” (749)
“…some compositionists claim that writers discover what they want to say when they allow writing to flow as naturally as when they speak.” (749)
“In accordance with one long-standing sytlistic approach, voice is the culmination of the stylistic choices a writer makes with regard to the rhetorical situation, disclosing who the writer is in relation to other components of discourse.” (749)
“Authorial presence is one of the more contested issues of voice.” Poststructuralists problematize the idea of an individual voice…”any instance of language is a ‘written’ instance, an inscription made possible by previous inscriptions.” (749). No original self = no concept of presence
“Voice thus involves taking a self-aware stance to challenge authoritarian constructs of language, knowledge, and subjectivity, which often entails developing or rediscovering language practices that better reflect one’s identity.” (750)
Text-ownership: “Like the idea of authorship, text-ownership concerns the extent to which discourse that results from a writer’s discursive actions can be considered as belonging to the writer.” (751)
Look up (from this article’s biblography):
Brooke, Robert. “Control in Writing: Flower, Derrida, and Images of the Writer.” College English 51 (1989): 405-17.
Elbow, Peter. Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. New York: Oxford UP, 1981.
Hickey, Dona J. Developing a Written Voice. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1993.
Porter, James. Audience and Rhetoric: An Archaeological Composition of the Discourse Community. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 1993.
