| Nushu is a Chinese women's script believed to have been invented and used before the Cultural Revolution. For about a couple centuries, Nushu was used by uneducated rural women in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, in China to communicate and correspond with one another, cope with their hardships, and promote creativity. Its complexity lies in the fact that it may come in different forms: written on paper fans or silk-bound books; embroidered on clothing and accessories; or sung while a woman or group of women were doing their domestic work.;Although Nushu is an old and somewhat secret female language which has been used for over 100 years, it has only been an academic field of study for about 25 years. Further, in the field of rhetoric and composition, despite the enormous interest in women's rhetorics and material culture, sources on Nushu in relation to the two fields are scarce.;In relation to Nushu, through examinations of American domestic arts, such as quilts, scrapbooking, and so on, material rhetoric is slowly becoming a significant field of study. Elaine Hedges explains, "Recent research has focused on 'ordinary women' whose household work comprised, defined, and often circumscribed their lives: the work of cooking, cleaning, and sewing that women traditionally and perpetually performed and has gone unheralded until now" (294).;In my dissertation research, I examine Nushu through public and private discourse as well as aspects of material rhetoric, which refers to cultural meanings that we give to everyday things. My research comprises real voices, collected data from previous researchers, and some Chinese history. A benefit of my proposed research for both western and eastern scholars in the fields of rhetoric and women's studies is that the interviews that I will conduct, particularly those with teachers and students of Nushu , add individual practitioners to a body of scholarship that is characterized more by the voices of scholars than practitioners. The purpose of personal interviews is to see why they continue to study this ancient language and their ideas of women's place in history as well as Nushu's potential place in various disciplines.;This research contributes to Western scholars' study of women's rhetorics and material culture, adding yet another literary practice through which to view the intersections of gender, culture, and language to a field where women's rhetorics and material culture have been studied extensively. And for the small emerging academic discussions of Nushu, this study will help draw the attention of Western scholars to this interesting and unusual literate practice. |
