Countermemory: A Rhetoric of Resistance (Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique)

O'Brien, April L.,Sanchez, James Chase

ISBN 10: 0817322256 / ISBN 13: 9780817322250

Published by University Alabama Press, 2025

About this Item

HARDCOVER Good - Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name - GOOD Standard-sized.

Seller Inventory # M0817322256Z3

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Countermemory: A Rhetoric of Resistance (Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique)
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817322256
• ISBN 13: 9780817322250
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Investigates the interdisciplinary dimensions of countermemory through a rhetorical lens

Countermemory: A Rhetoric of Resistance by April L. O’Brien and James Chase Sanchez is a groundbreaking monograph that explores the concept of countermemory from an interdisciplinary and rhetorical perspective. The authors define “countermemory” as remembrance that resituates often overlooked or erased narratives of marginalized groups by positioning these memories as equally significant to dominant historical narratives. This work investigates how countermemories emerge in response to public memories, highlighting the tensions and resistance that arise when marginalized voices challenge mainstream historical accounts.

Through a mixed-methodological approach—incorporating site-based analysis, participant observation, textual analysis, and historiography—O’Brien and Sanchez examine countermemory in both physical and digital spaces. From memorial sites and museums to music videos, TV shows, and digital maps, they reveal the various ways countermemory operates and persists. The authors focus particularly on countermemory in the American South, centering on the experiences and histories of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities.

Countermemory is essential reading for scholars and students of rhetoric and public memory. The book also offers rich insights to readers who are passionate about addressing issues of racial inequality, people interested in examining their own experiences and the role they can play in promoting social change, and those interested in exploring the ways in which history is constructed and presented, and how marginalized perspectives are often excluded or distorted.

About the Author

April L. O'Brien is assistant professor of technical communication at Sam Houston State University.

James Chase Sanchez is associate professor of writing and rhetoric at Middlebury College.