| This dissertation employs data from eight months of ethnographic research to make contemporary Black preaching women's contributions to rhetorical history more apparent by identifying and interpreting the language and literacy practices of two preachers as expressed in their biblical hermeneutics, oral performance and physical delivery of sermons, and the social, political, and rhetorical functions of their spiritual experiences. I argue that historicizing and contextualizing the themes of their literacy traditions reveals distinct features of African American female discourse these women draw upon to interpret and articulate their experiences and to contribute to knowledge-making both in their immediate communities and in the wider society.; The introduction, "Situating Black Women Preachers' Literacies," outlines the theoretical framework for the study and foregrounds spirituality as a key component of Black women preachers' literacy practices. In Chapter 2, "This is My Story," I introduce the reader to the two preachers through what I call "spiritual literacy stories." I demonstrate that spirituality is an intellectual enterprise that permits them to express a distinctly Black female epistemology. Chapter 3, "Taking a Text: Othermothering as Hermeneutic," explores the ways in which Overseer Georgia McRay's identity as an othermother informs her literacy practices as expressed in her sermon. McRay relies upon an othermothering identity as a strategy to nurture and correct her congregation and instill in them the necessary spiritual and practical tools to survive through vernacular speech forms such as "rebuking," proverbial sayings and other forms of Mother Wit. In Chapter 4, "Ain't I a Woman: Stylin' Out of the Pulpit," I examine the ways in which Pastor Sharon Forester's stylin' out---her physical movement of her body, purposeful uses of clothing and fashion, and deployment of rich, vernacular language forms reveals distinctive features of African, American women discourse that enable her to navigate the masculine terrain of the pulpit. In Chapter 5, "Legacies of Black Women Preachers' Literacies," I reflect upon the research process and demonstrate that an examination of spirituality as a key component informing Black women's literacies challenges researchers and educators to affirm Black women's literacies traditions in academic settings. |
