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A QI 气 Theory of Voice: Cultivating and Negotiating Inventive and Ethical Qi-Voice in Writing

Zhao, Yebing
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7879-1429
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1617901205834771

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, English.
Following the latest comparative rhetoric methodologies, this dissertation recovers the ancient Chinese rhetoric of qi (文气 , respirational air, vitality, or energy mobilized by the cosmological yin-yang dynamics) and brings its related literary theory "wenqi 文气" (the holistic and contingent manifestation of an author's distinctive pneuma or ecological self in a written text) into reflective dialogues with the Euro-American concept of "voice" in writing studies. By studying the Chinese "voice" with its own term and in its own context, the study recuperates an ecological worldview embedded in the Chinese wenqi theory and challenges the widespread misconception of "Asian voice" as completely "collective" without individual originality, a misconception influenced by the Eurocentric binary theorization of voice as either individual-centered or socially-constructed, which continues to haunt the research analysis, teaching, and assessment of voice in both Euro-America and China. Through a detailed analysis of resonances and dissonances between voice and wenqi, the author draws insights from both cultures to develop a hybrid "qi-voice" theory that aims to chart out new approaches to conceptualizing, analyzing, assessing, and teaching voice in contemporary writing classrooms. The qi-voice theory situates writers in a reciprocal and mutually constitutive relationship with their human and nonhuman others in the ecosystem and urges writers to ever invent and develop their qi-voice by mobilizing their body and mind to sympathetically/ethically and critically/self-reflectively interact with their situated ecosystem. It hence concerns not only the contingent textual manifestation of one's distinct/inventive and ethical qi-voice in the final product of writing but also one's self-conscious processes of cultivating (inventing and refining) and manifesting (choosing textual strategies) their inventive and ethical qi-voice through ongoing critical, reflective, and dialogical negotiations with their human and nonhuman others, their previous self, all factors of a text, and readers in the ecosystem. Based on the theory, the author develops a qi-voice pedagogy and incorporates it into an intercultural writing course to nurture students' metacognition and ability in analyzing, inventing, negotiating, refining/reinventing, and strategically balancing and manifesting their qi-voice across differences. An IRB-approved classroom-based research was conducted for examining the strengths and limitations of the qi-voice pedagogy. All research findings are anticipated to shed new light on educating students' inventive and ethical intercultural communicative competence.
LuMing Mao (Committee Chair)
Heidi McKee (Committee Member)
Jason Palmeri (Committee Member)
Tony Cimasko (Committee Member)
Liang Shi (Committee Member)
220 p.
Communication; Comparative; Composition; Curriculum Development; Ecology; Education; English As A Second Language; Ethics; Language; Multicultural Education; Multilingual Education; Pedagogy; Philosophy; Rhetoric
Qi; Wenqi; Wende; Voice; Asian Voice; Comparative Rhetoric; Ecological Selfhood; Ecological Rhetoric and Composition; Intercultural Writing; Inventive and Ethical Communication; Individual Originality; Writerly Authority; Writing Pedagogy and Assessment

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zhao, Y. (2021). A QI 气 Theory of Voice: Cultivating and Negotiating Inventive and Ethical Qi-Voice in Writing [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1617901205834771

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhao, Yebing. A QI 气 Theory of Voice: Cultivating and Negotiating Inventive and Ethical Qi-Voice in Writing. 2021. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1617901205834771.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhao, Yebing. "A QI 气 Theory of Voice: Cultivating and Negotiating Inventive and Ethical Qi-Voice in Writing." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1617901205834771

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.