Reading Response: “Memoria as a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color”

Readings on Writing (p. 169-176)

Reading Response

“Memoria as a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color” by Victor Villanueva

Summary:

In “Memoria as a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color,” Victor Villanueva attempts to relate narratives and poetry with memory. He does this to explain how conventional academic discourse today does not set a place for emotion or memory. He argues that discourse today is too “logo centric” (in Aristotelian terms) and that we need to recognize that “the personal” doesn’t necessarily disaffirm the academic tendency toward objectivity. Instead he argues that “the personal” can cause affect and thus complement intellect since he says that “the personal” is intellect. Villanueva emphasizes the works from “those of color” and how memory directs “possibility realized” and “openings found.” He ultimately wants to bolster the part of memory in rhetoric through narrative and poetry.