Elbow, Peter. “Introduction.” Landmark Essays on Voice and Writing Ed. Peter Elbow. Davis, CA: Hermagoras, 1994. xi-xlvii.
Page xx:
“five meanings of voice as applied to writing: (1) audible voice or intonation (the sounds in a text); (2) dramatic voice (the character or implied author in the text); (3) recognizable or distinctive voice; (4) voice with authority; (5) resonant voice or presence.” There is an ideological dispute about the fifth meaning because it is “the only meaning that requires a link between the known text and the unknown actual author.” First four are “relatively noncontroversial.”
Page xxi:
when use term “voice,” we are using a metaphor. Some background about literal voice:
– voice is a product of the body, so when we talk about voice, we are connoting the body
– learn to speak before write
– recognize and identify others by their voice
– people have unique voices
– voice has two dimensions: sound and manner
– we all have variations in our voice (how we speak)
Page xxii:
– speech gives away our feelings
– audience plays role in how we talk – imitate and respond to those around us
– people act out voices
– voice is produced by body, but out of air and breath, something that’s not part of the body
– involves sound, hearing, and time
Page xxiii:
– “Spoken language has more semiotic channels than writing.” More ways to carry meaning: volume, pitch, speed, accent, intensity, etc.
Page xxxi:
we should question the idea of a distinctive “finding one’s voice” because a really good author should be able to “bring in craft, art, and play as to deploy different styles at will, and thus not necessarily have a recognizable, distinctive voice.” Removing this mystique leaves it not as a voice that identifies with the person, but rather, does that author want a “recognizable, distinctive voice in writing.”
Page xxxii:
use voice with authority – often in feminist writing – get rid of “deferential, questioning, permission-asking tone – getting more authority into the voice.”
Page xxxiii:
even if can’t agree about “resonant voice or presence,” can agree about the previous four types of voice (that they exist and that it benefits students to exlore those four types of voice).
Page xxiv:
don’t use sincere becausesinceere means that there is “no gap at all between utterance and intention, between words and available thoughts and feelings. But what about gaps between utterance and unavailable or unconscious thoughts or feelings?”
“Resonant voice is a useful concept because it points to the relationship between discourse and the unconscious. When we hear sincerity that is obviously tinny, we are hearing a gap between utterance and unconscious intention or feeling.”
Page xxv:
resonance = “the sound of more of a person behind the words”
resonant voice can be unified, coherent or “ironic, unaware, disjointed”
Page xxvi:
“‘Resonant’ seems a more helpful word than ‘authentic,’ and it is more to the point than ‘sincerity,’ because it connotes the ‘resounding’ or ‘sounding-again’ that is involved when distinct parts can echo each other”
Page xxvii:
can’t use examples of resonant voice because “cannot point to identifiable features of language that are ‘resonant'”
need “pointing to the relation of textual features to an inferred person behind the text” – calls this “dicey business”
Page xxix:
“people have an ingrained habit of…listening not only to each others’ words but also listening for the relationship between the words and the speaker behind the words. To put this in a nonstartling way, we habitually listen to see whether we can trust the speaker.”
Page xlii:
these five views of voice don’t require theory of identity or self. “Once we set out to write, however, or to teach writing, it is hard to escape the identity issue.”
Page xliv:
“it’s not uncommon for people to develop a voice that is strong or lively or distinctive or authoritative, but which feels somehow alien – and to feel like using it means remaining without power or authority.”
Page xlvii:
“When it comes to our own writing, then, we often notice whether the words we put down on the page feel like our words – whether they sound like our voice or one of our owned voices. Yet even here, I hope I’ve persuaded you that we write best if we learn to move flexibly back and forth between on the one hand using and celebrating something we feel as our own voice, and on the other hand operating as though we are nothing but ventriloquists playfully using and adapting and working against an array of voices we find around us.”
