Aurality: Overarching Concepts

When reading Selfe’s paper, there are key ideas that you must understand when dissecting her argument.

BIAS.

Bias has had an extremely invasive impact on the world of academia and its view on composition. This bias persists the misconception of how writing is supposedly more “sophisticated” and “complex” than other forms of communication (Sawyer qtd. 629). This bias has controlled the rule on what is considered intelligent, educated, or worthy of praise, thereby excluding vast amounts of information and sometimes entire groups of people.

RACISM.

Closely tied to the poison of bias, racism has held clear notes throughout Western history and literacy. When education was thriving on the written word, it was primarily only available to white males. Women were disadvantaged and so were racial groups, and Selfe spends a great deal of time discussing the oppression of the latter. Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans developed their own emphases on which modes of communication were important. Because written composition was less accessible to them, aurality became a tool of resistance and empowerment. For example, Native Americans today see aurality as their way of preserving their culture in a form of “rhetorical sovereignty” (Lyons qtd. 636). It is also worth noting that this racism continues today, like in the oppression of bilingual aurality in states that have a high Spanish-speaking populations.

VOICE.

The idea of aurality is based on sound, particularly the human voice’s capability of forming it and making meaning from it. However, academia has a warped perception on voice. Instead of recognizing it as an oral tool and powerful mode of meaning, it has been defined from a frame of written composition . . . that instead of voice being the literal human feature of sound, it is an abstract idea and tool that contributes to producing the written word. (630) In short, academia’s bias that favors written composition, and the long-held belief equating writing with intelligence, have erased the original meaning of voice.