Keepin' It Hushed ─ The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric

African American rhetoric in the public sphere is often "hushed" because many African Americans still see the public sphere as "hegemonically White, heteronormative, male, and dangerous," according to Nunley (English and rhetoric, U. of California at Riverside), and the hidden rhetorics of African American life, culture, and knowledge therefore remain relegated to the metaphorical (or sometimes not so metaphorical) "barbershop," a "hush harbor" where a different rhetoric reigns. Utilizing an interdisciplinary method utilizing critical theory, philosophy, cultural studies, and rhetoric, Nunley theorizes this African American hush harbor rhetoric and what it reveals about African American subjectivities and knowledge through the examination of literary, poetic, theatrical, filmic, animated, and public texts. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Vorris L. Nunley is professor of English and rhetoric at the University of California, Riverside and co-editor of Rhetoric and Ethnicity.