Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Literature
First Advisor
Dr. Maggie Shelledy
Second Advisor
Dr. Randall Monty
Third Advisor
Dr. Alyssa Cavazos
Abstract
Prison is an environment by which man is no longer a man. In an institution designed to limit the agency of incarcerated individuals, a literacy event has unfolded through the rhetorical practice of prison tattooing that allows individuals to re/gain their agency. Tattoos allow for the incarcerated, who are seen as state property, to break down the dehumanizing assemblage that has been created. The body, now an object, becomes a site for rhetorical communication where an emergent agency develops within the relationship of all intra-acting factors. I analyze and build upon ambient rhetoric, visual rhetoric, Kairos, and counternarratives to understand the humanizing literacy event that has unfolded, interviewing three formerly incarcerated men to gain an insider understanding of a rhetorical tool used by an exclusive group of individuals.
Recommended Citation
Reyes, Rebecca R., "The Prisoner as Object: Rhetorical Agency and the Literacy of Prison Tattooing" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 573.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/etd/573
Comments
Copyright 2019 Rebecca R. Reyes. All Rights Reserved.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/utrgv.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/prisoner-as-object-rhetorical-agency-literacy/docview/2304965454/se-2?accountid=7119