"Movement as motive": Self-definition and social advocacy in social movement autobiographies

FROM Mother Jones to Malcolm X, autobiographers have played an important role in promoting social change in American history. Yet with the notable exception of Benson's pioneering study of the autobiography of Malcolm X (1974), "movement autobiographies" had received surprisingly little attention from rhetorical critics until the past decade. As recently as 1991, Solomon could identify only two studies of movement autobiographies completed within the field of Speech Communication (368, note 4). Since that time, thanks largely to Solomon (Watson)'s own efforts (1991, 1999), a promising start has been made toward exploring the ways in which movement autobiographies supplement and complement other types of movement rhetoric.