Surrender as Method: Research, Writing, Rhetoric, Love

Surrender as Method: Research, Writing, Rhetoric, Love

Peitho Volume 18 Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2015

Author(s): Jessica Restaino, with Susan Lundy Maute (in memoriam)

Abstract: This essay examines the challenges to research and writing in feminist rhetorical studies in the context of terminal illness. Drawing on qualitative data from a two-year ethnography project I conducted with my friend, Susan Lundy Maute, who was living at the time with stage IV breast cancer, I explore divisions between knowledge-making in the humanities and social sciences, and the stakes of emotionality, love, and friendship in the research relationship. I argue for the necessity of feminist methods and research in rhetorical studies rooted in unpredictability and uncertainty.

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