UC San Diego

This dissertation investigates the development and influence of elocution pedagogy during the Reconstruction Era, a period when many U.S. citizens recognized the precarity and possibility of creating equitable opportunities for self-expression. In particular, it examines the embodied politics of American Delsartism, a repertoire of psycho-physical exercises designed to ease nervousness and cultivate confidence. By evaluating the gendered and racial messaging of this curriculum, Wings to Their Heels establishes American Delsartism’s prominent role in shaping cultural ideas about whose voices mattered and where and how they should be heard.