The Discourse of Hysteria: The Topoi of Humility, Physicality, and Authority in Women’s Rhetoric

This book offers a detailed examination of the rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen, Margery Kempe, Aphra Behn, Sojourner Thruth, and Helene Cixous, revealing that, despite their abvious cultural and historical differences, each of these women makes use of the various topoi that Greene takes to be constitutive of hysterical rhetoric. Specifically, according to Greene, hysterical rhetoric is characterized by humility, physicality, and authority.