Rhetoric and autobiography: The case of Malcolm X

Abstract

Rhetoric is a mode of being, of knowing, and of doing. An examination of The Autobiography of Malcolm X shows these modes in a successful balance. Malcolm's rhetorical problem was to present a life of changes as a coherent pattern. Plausible readings of the Autobiography can make it seem to depict a hustler or fanatic on the one hand, or a mythically detached existential hero on the other. The acceptance of either reading would render the book a rhetorical failure. The two plausible but unsatisfactory readings can be resolved, and the text explained, by a third reading.