College English - Volume 59, Issue 7, 1997

Examines hundreds of compositions from 19th-century students at Mount Holyoke and other institutions. Finds that the first generation of women to attend United States colleges negotiated competing demands of service (to family and community) and of individual intellectual performance. Contrasts women’s compositions to men’s. Illustrates effects of gender on service, both as a concept and as an activity.

Notes that in Native American storytelling, memory is seen through an already existing story or recognized as a familiar category of experience that is widely shared. Suggests that the implications of the merging of tribal memory and personal memory are profound and that the reach of the storyteller’s memory extends beyond his own lifetime, her own experience.

Suggests that doing literary criticism is how teachers and students hear other voices as they read, instead of projections of themselves. Espouses the study of style as the vehicle of literary criticism. Proposes a definition of style.