WR 122 - Counterstory. Spring2023: Home
The Counterstory project
This class begins with an understanding the harm of stock stories, and with identifying the many stock stories you may be pushing up against in your day to day life.
- WR 122 research warm-up for the Stock story rewriteA worksheet that walks you through thinking about your stock story and your experience; identifying a possible research topic and keywords for research; and possible places to begin your research.
Find Stock Stories
Stock Stories
In class, we worked on understanding the harm of stock stories and identifying the many stock stories you may be pushing up against in your day to day life.
Establishing a Stock Story assignment. For this assignment, you will identify a stock story that marginalizes a group of people, or leaves out the experiences of some person or group of people we care about. Write an overview of that stock story and write a personal response and reflection to the stock story.
Positionality activity assignment
For example, the social location map
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Guiding Questions:
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What are the stock stories that operate in U.S. society?
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How do we learn these stories?
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Where are the imbalances of power in the stock stories?
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Who benefits from the stock stories? Who pays?
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How do these stories function to maintain the status quo and prevent change?
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Finding Stock stories
The challenge is that you are looking for stories that leave out the group of people who you care about, so you won’t be able to do a keyword search for that group of people. Maybe search for the contexts in which your people often aren’t represented or included.
Search terms and keywords
Use the Research Warmup to generate ideas. Look back over what you wrote to identify main ideas, key concepts and words to use in a search. Identify keywords that can help you to locate stories related to:
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Historical / Social / Locational Context – list words associated with the context you’re interested in
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The story – list words associated with the story you’re interested in finding
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Experience or Identity – list words associated with the aspect of the experience the stock story
Places to look for Stock Stories
- US Major Dailies This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers from five U.S. national and regional newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune
- Google NewsAggregated news stories from all over the world
- New York Times Online This link opens in a new windowUnlimited access to the New York Times on NYTimes.com. See Get Started with the New York Times Online to set up your subscription through PCC Library. Once you have set up your subscription, you can go directly to NYTimes.com and sign in using your personal account.
Use Google to find examples, such as political speeches, campaign rhetoric, films, or advertising of all kinds.
Search by politician's name, campaign slogans, issues
Search by consumer items like handbags or skateboards, or a consumer group like Porche owners, or camper vans
Search by describing the kinds of examples you what to find, such as gender stereotypes in advertising
Stock Story: cowboy
A 1958 movie staring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon. "An idealistic tenderfoot Chicago hotel clerk is taken on a cattle-drive to Mexico by famous trail boss tom Reece but discovers that cowboy life isn't what he expected."
Find Concealed Stories
Concealed Stories
Now that you have researched and written about a specific stock story, it is time to turn your attention to the stories that challenge the myth. For this assignment, you will find both Concealed Stories and Stories of Resistance to help you create your own counterstory.
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10 sources; 7 sources with Concealed Stories and 3 sources with Stories of Resistance
Finding Concealed Stories
Concealed stories are those told by people on the margins about the realities of their lives, their values and their struggles.
- Google NewsYour people might be featured or quoted. Try a search that names your people. Then try adding another word (just one at a time) that indicates the story they’re excluded from.
For example: lgbtq parents
Or: formerly incarcerated and a keyword such as: success, award, achieves, degree, leader
- Ethnic Newswatch This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers and magazines articles from ethnic minority and native publications. Provides a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. View the Ethnic NewsWatch handout
Use Google to locate real life experiences of individuals and groups. For example:
Search for statistics or studies. Try government websites (site:gov) or a repository such as the Pew Research Center to look for trends.
Search for historical evidence. Try educational websites (site:edu) to access digital archives. [example: black cowboys site:edu archives]
Use the search box on the Library homepage to find a biography, autobiography or documentary:
Search for the name of someone you want to learn about or hear their story (Nat Love, a black cowboy)
Search on the community you are wanting to hear from or learn more about (for example, Black cowboys or LGBTQ parents)
Concealed Story: cowboy
- The Legacy of Black Cowboys is a Missing Chapter in Texas History"There is a rich history, culture and legacy of Black cowboys in Texas and the nation that’s been underrepresented in history and popular culture."
Find Stories of Resistance
Stories of Resistance
Stories of resistance can be found in works of art (poetry, song lyrics, fiction, visual art, film, speeches, etc) that exemplify challenges to the status quo and provide inspiration and ideas for what justice can look like.
Finding Stories of Resistance
- Art guide: Find imagesOnline art collections.
- PCC Library searchUse the search box on the library homepage to find a book or a film. Add the word "resistance" to your search OR add the medium you're interested in locating (photography, poetry or fiction)
- GoogleUse Google to find examples of an art form that exemplifies resistance from within a community.
Story of resistance: Lil Nas X
- Lil Nas X talks fame, going viral, and more in his first cover story"A black guy who raps comes along and he's on top of the country chart, it's like, ‘What the f*ck?’"
Creating a Counterstory
Examples of Counterstories
Check in with your instructor about writing your counterstory. Here are some examples.
- Space TradersBy Derrick Bell. This story is an allegory.
- Chapter 2, Richard Delgado and Counterstory as Narrated DialogueChapter Two in "Counterstory: the Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory." An example of narrated dialogue is Aja Martinez’ dialogue with Alejandra.
- Chapter 4, Diary of a Mad Border CrosserIn Chapter Four of "Counterstory: the Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory," the chapter section labeled, "Diary of a Mad Border Crosser" is another example of narration.
More about Counterstory
- Counterstory byISBN: 9780814100264Publication Date: 2022Aja Y. Martinez presents counterstory as methodology in rhetoric and writing studies through the framework of critical race theory (CRT), reviewing first the counterstory work of Richard Delgado, Derrick Bell, and Patricia J. Williams who are foundational critical race theorists working in the respective counterstory genres of narrated dialogue, fantasy/allegory, and autobiography. Counterstory provides opportunities for marginalized voices to contribute to conversations about dominant ideology; Martinez applies racial and feminist rhetorical criticism to the rich histories and theories established through counterstory genres, while demonstrating how CRT theories and methods can inform teaching, research, and writing/publishing of counterstory.