An Analysis of Selected Poems of Phillis Wheatley, an African-American Poet, By Toulmin’s Argumentation Theory

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Vida Sabzevari Bidokhti ¹
• Saeed Roozbahani ²
• Abolghassem Amirahmadi ³
• Mohammad Davoudi ⁴

¹ PhD in Persian Language and Literature, Sabzevar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sabzevar, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Sabzevar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sabzevar, Iran (Corresponding Author)

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Sabzevar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sabzevar, Iran

⁴ Hakim Sabzevari University

https://doi.org/10.22067/jlkd.2021.48418.0

Abstract

In Toulmin's theory of argumentation, each argument may have six components: 1) claim, 2) data, 3) warrant, 4) backings (for the warrant), 5) rebuttal (of the claim), and 6) qualifiers (of the speaker’s certainty), of which the first three are essential and the rest are optional. Based on his theory, this descriptive-analytic research aims to analyze 4 selected poems of the religious/ethical collection of Wheatley (1773) from three aspects: (a) identifying Wheatley’s warrants, (b) categorizing her claims and their grounds, and (c) her tone and certainty. Consequently, the following results were obtained; Wheatley’s claims and recommendations in selected poems were rewritten in simplified language, free from figures of speech, which varied greatly in proportion to the number of selected poems. However, these claims can be categorized under these related fields: (a) individual ethics, (b) governmental-political ethics, and (c) theology. Since most of these claims are prescriptive, Wheatley can be categorized as a deontologist. In addition, supporting the claims, numerous warrants were identified mostly rational and implicitly-asserted.

Although she tends to use a conservative voice by resorting to prays, rhetoric questions, exclamations and hyperboles while addressing her recommendations to elites and high-ranked people, she prefers a declarative voice which essentially does not need any qualifiers. In sum, Wheatley has a strong, assertive and consistent voice in the selected poems.

Keywords

• Argumentation
• Wheatley
• Theory
• Toulmin
• Analysis

20.1001.1.20087233.1400.13.2.6.7

Main Subjects

• Discourse analysis

References

• اسکویی، نرگس. (1394)،."تأثیر فرهنگ عامه بر شعر رسمی"، فصلنامه پژوهش زبان و ادبیات فارسی، ش 39. صص 1-22.
• روزبهانی، سعید. سبزواری، ویدا، امیراحمدی، ابوالقاسم، و محمد داودی (زیرچاپ)، "بررسی شیوة استدلال­ورزی در مناظرات پروین اعتصامی بر اساس نظریة تولیمن"، مجله پژوهش­های ادبی شیراز.
• عالمی، روح الله (1389). منطق. چاپ دوم. تهران: شرکت چاپ و نشر کتاب‌های درسی.
• عبدالهی، منیژه. عمل­صالح، احیا (1391)." بررسی ساختار استدلال در سه متن دورۀ قاجار". مجله بوستان ادب دانشگاه شیراز. س 4. ش 2. صص 151-174.
• کانوی، د.، مانسون، ر. (1391). مبانی استدلال، ترجمه­ی تورج قانونی، نشر ققنوس.
• مزینانی، ابوالفضل. (1396). گفتمان­کاوی موضوعی مدلی بر مبنای تاریخی گفتمانی و روش تفسیر قرآن کریم. رساله دکتری منتشرنشده، دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد
• مزینانی، ابوالفضل. نصیری، سحر. (1397). "طرح روش تحقیق جهت کاربست نظریه استدلال تولمین در سبک­شناسی، تحلیل گفتمان، و زبان­شناسی حقوقی". دوماه­نامه جستارهای زبانی. انتشار آنلاین به آدرس: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/
• Gates, H. L. (2010), Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's Second Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers, Basic Civitas Books.
• Kennedy, G. A. (1963), Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors, New Jersey: Princeton.
• Mani, Manimangai. (2015). "Racial Awareness in Phillis Wheatley’s Selected Poems". International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences. Vol. 56, pp 74-79.
• Meehan, A., Bell, J. L. (2017). "Phillis Wheatley: George Washington's Mount Vernon". Mount Vernon.
• Reisigl, M., Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 87–121). London, UK: Sage.
• Herbert, R. G. (1970). Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley. The Black Heritage Library Collection. Plainview, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press.
• J. (2008), Rhetoric, London and New York: Routledge.
• Shields, J. C. (1980). "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism",American Literature. 52(1). pp 97-111.
• Ivester, H. (2009). “The Stamp Act of 1765 – A Serendipitous Find", The Revenue Society, Vol. XX, No.3, pp.87–89.
• Watkins, J. D. (2016). Literary Subversions: The Enlightenment Subject in Wheatley and Melville. MA Thesis. San Francisco State University.
• Wodak, R. (2001). The Discourse-historical Approach. In R. Wodak. & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 63–94). London: Sage
• Toulmin, S. E. (1972). Human Understanding: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts. Princeton University Press.
• Toulmin, S. E. (1985 [2003]). The Uses of Argument.Cambridge University Press.
• Wheatley, P. (1773). Poems On Various Subjects, Religious And Moral. Denver, Colorado: W.H. Lawrence.
• Carretta, V. (2011). Phillis Wheatley: Biography of A Genius in Bondage. Athens: University of Georgia Press.