Qualities of Agent/cy

Towards the end of class, the significance of the title of Karlyn Kohrs Campbell's piece was addressed: Agency: Promiscuous and Protean. After looking at a number of definitions for promiscuous, the best operative definition I can come up with is lacking standards or regulations of selection; and this attaches with it, as mentioned in class, moral and judgmental ramifications. Being classified as promiscuous in society is rarely positive, with amoral associations and inferiority. It is interesting that Campbell chose this word along with "protean" to describe the topic of agency. Protean is taken to describe something mutable. At first, I was skeptical of her title choice, wondering if Campbell chose the two adjectives for more of an alliteration over function purpose, but the connection becomes much more clear after reading and discussing her piece.

Campbell delves into the heavy topic of Sojourner Truth's speech at a woman's rights convention in the mid-1800s, a speech that has caused an earthquake of emotion throughout the history of women's rights and the abolitionist movement. While agency is extremely important in fiction and literary history, it truly comes to life in this case study. The blend of truth, fact, and presentation of the two through indirection sources is absolutely reflective of the title. Campbell seems to come to this conclusion after reinterpreting the speech. She writes, "I now believe that it was wrong to do so, although it could not and should not have been published as originally written without the kind of analysis done here. But agency is perverse: the stereotypes that give rise to penning the speech in the demeaning argot ironically give the text special force"(14). Campbell realizes and shares with readers the corruption of blending agencies, but also the inevitability of the practice, which is where I believe she derived the title of her essay. Agency is emotionally charged when dealing with words that come from equally emotionally charged speakers. This brings out the promiscuous nature that she speaks of as well as the protean quality. Both the agent and the agency are subject to these adjectives, then relating back to audiences the responsibility of wading through the waters of interpretation.