Memory, History, and Forgetting in the Sandra Allen Collection of Papers on Mormonism

352 Pages·2017·3.13 MB·English

University of New Mexico
UNM Digital Repository
English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations
6-24-2015
Memory, History, and Forgetting in the Sandra
Allen Collection of Papers on Mormonism: A
Feminist Rhetorical Historiography of Institutional
Intervention in the Equal Rights Amendment
Valerie Kinsey
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Recommended Citation
Kinsey, Valerie. "Memory, History, and Forgetting in the Sandra Allen Collection of Papers on Mormonism: A Feminist Rhetorical
Historiography of Institutional Intervention in the Equal Rights Amendment." (2015).https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/
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i

Valerie L. Kinsey
Candidate

English
Department

This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication:

Approved by the Dissertation Committee:

Susan Romano, Co-Chairperson

Chuck Paine, Co-Chairperson

Roxanne Mountford

Sharon Oard Warner
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MEMORY, HISTORY, FORGETTING
IN THE
SANDRA ALLEN COLLECTION OF PAPERS ON
MORMONISM:
A FEMINIST RHETORICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY OF
INSTITUTIONAL INTERVENTION IN THE EQUAL
RIGHTS AMENDMENT

by

VALERIE L. KINSEY

A.B., Humanities, Stanford University, 1998
M.F.A., Creative Writing, University of New Mexico, 2005

DISSERTATION

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

English

The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

May 2015
iii

DEDICATION

To Sandra Webb Allen
iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With humble gratitude, I wish to acknowledge Dr. Susan Romano, dissertation
co-chair, advisor, mentor, and friend. Susan, you are steadfast, brilliant, insightful, and
generous to a fault. Whatever this project is, was, will become is because of you. My
deepest thanks.

I also acknowledge Dr. Chuck Paine, whose love of language and teaching rubs
off on all of his students. He has challenged and inspired me throughout my long tenure
in graduate school. I hope he knows how much I value his insight and dedication.

To the two other outstanding women on this committee: thank you for being role
models. You both have integrity in spades, and I am proud to know you. Sharon Oard
Warner: Thank you for teaching me about writing and life and the unavoidable, glorious
connections between the two. Dr. Roxanne Mountford: your scholarship and
professional vision are inspiring. Thank you for serving on my committee.

A million thanks, also, to Dr. Daniel Cryer for his friendship and thoughtful
commentary. Our weekly meetings encouraged me to keep moving. I learned much from
you, Dan, and for this, I am most appreciative.

I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues in the Rhetoric and Writing Program at
the University of New Mexico, especially my dear friend Mellisa Huffman. Your
dedication to your work astounds.

My darling, thoughtful husband, Donnie: You have done everything – everything!
– to see me through this project. I love you immensely. To my children, Kinsey and
Dash, who bring me joy and hope. To Mom and Dad who always thought I could do this.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the Mormon women, past and present, whose
words, ideas, and stories have enriched my life. In addition to Sandra Allen, I want to
acknowledge Dr. Kimberly Thomas-Pollei and Dr. Joanna Brooks for sharing their
thoughts on Mormon feminism. Thank you.
v

MEMORY, HISTORY, FORGETTING
IN THE
SANDRA ALLEN PAPERS COLLECTION OF PAPERS ON
MORMONISM:
A FEMINIST RHETORICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY OF
INSTITUTIONAL INTERVENTION IN THE EQUAL RIGHTS
AMENDMENT

by

Valerie L. Kinsey

A.B., Humanities, Stanford University, 1998
M.F.A., Creative Writing, University of New Mexico, 2005
Ph.D., English, University of New Mexico, 2015

ABSTRACT
This dissertation leverages archival theory, public memory theory, feminist
historiography, and rhetorical theory to argue that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints reinterpreted the Mormon past to engender identification and foster political
action during the Equal Rights Amendment ratification period (1976-1982). Chapter One
provides readers with an orientation to the Sandra Allen Collection of Papers on
Mormonism and argues that its creator, Sandra Allen, marshaled her understanding of
archiving, history writing, and institutional archives to make her history public. Chapter
Two: On Memory uses theories of public memory to explain why the Mormon Church
built the Nauvoo Monument to Women (MTW). The chapter posits that public
monuments are pedagogical: They argue in the epideictic register for what should be by
praising a past. By providing an explanation of the historical context in which the MTW
was erected, the chapter demonstrates that the Mormon Church sought to assuage
feelings of resentment among women. Its statues, physical location, and dedication
suggest the MTW is less a representation honoring the past than a means of representing
women’s ideally embodied roles. Chapter Three: On History argues that Mormons draw
from and build upon their history as means of self-identification. Church leaders foster
this identification by calling upon members to contribute to history by producing personal
journals, books of remembrance, and genealogies. The process of creating home archives
engenders an ongoing practice of self-discipline, wherein members perform Mormon
ethe. Chapter Four: On Forgetting examines the discourses that brought about and
ultimately suppressed a “Golden Age” of Mormon history. By offering a history of
Mormon historiography, the chapter argues that the Church silenced professional
historians. At the same time, the family history methodology the Church forwarded
conceals structural inequality. The chapter asserts that the Mormon Church silenced
counter-memories to prevent them from gaining purchase among stakeholders. After
summarizing the major arguments presented, the dissertation’s conclusion offers heuristic
derived from the Roman god, Janus, as a tool for imaginative speculation on theorizing
resistance to institutional rhetorics.
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ III

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... IV

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... V

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... VI

LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... VIII

PREFACE ....................................................................................................................... IX

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1

“RELEASING” THE RHETORICAL TRADITION ............................................................................... 9

INVERTING LOCAL HISTORIES ................................................................................................... 13

EXTENDING FEMINIST RHETORICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY ............................................................ 19

ENGAGING THE “MATERIALIST TURN” ...................................................................................... 22

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 24

CHAPTER SUMMARIES ................................................................................................................ 26

CHAPTER 1 ..................................................................................................................... 29

LOOKING THROUGH THE ARCHIVE ............................................................................................ 34

The Personal Journals: Sandra Allen and the Work of Pro-Family ..................................... 37

LOOKING AT THE ARCHIVE: ARCHIVE AS TEXTS ....................................................................... 43

Locating the Sandra Allen Collection: The Physical Space .................................................. 44

Order and Arrangement of Materials in the Sandra Allen Collection .................................. 48

(Re)Making the Archive and My Material Contexts of Reading and Writing ....................... 53

LOOKING THROUGH –AND BEYOND THE ARCHIVE TO INTERPRETATION OF MORMONISM ....... 60

A RHETORICAL HISTORY OF THE SANDRA ALLEN COLLECTION .................................................. 67

The Migrant Archives: An Archaeological Analysis ............................................................. 68

Moving The Archive: Radical Recontextualization ............................................................... 70

Mobilizing the Sandra Allen Collection: Allen Makes the Materials Move .......................... 74

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 84

CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................................... 87

CALLS FOR EQUALITY: RACE AND GENDER IN THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH .......................... 92

The Accommodation and Peculiarity Thesis ......................................................................... 95

Mormon Women’s Bodies as Retrenchment Battleground .................................................... 98

PUBLIC MEMORY, PUBLIC REMEMBRANCE AND THE MONUMENT TO WOMEN ...................... 106

Origin of the Monument to Women ..................................................................................... 107

Monument to Women in Nauvoo as Site of Public Remembrance ....................................... 111

The Site: A Pilgrimage to Historic Nauvoo ......................................................................... 116

The Statues: The Mormon Ideal Embodied ......................................................................... 120

Dedicating the Monument to Women: A Pedagogy in Women’s Place ............................... 136

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 149

CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................... 157

HISTORICAL RECORD KEEPING IN THE CONTEXT OF MORMONISM ........................................ 160

MATERIALITY: DOCUMENTS INTO MONUMENTS .................................................................... 161
vii

Material Monument to Mormon Identity: Little Cottonwood Canyon ................................ 164

The Other Monument to Women: Women’s Historical Documents as Site of Remembrance
............................................................................................................................................. 167

DISCIPLINING HISTORICAL PRODUCTION ................................................................................ 172

Genealogies: Constructing a Biological Hierarchy ............................................................ 173

Books of Remembrance: Identification with Ancestors ....................................................... 177

PERSONAL JOURNALS: ENGENDERING DULL DAILY REINFORCEMENT .................................. 179

Construction of Ethos in the Personal Journal: Audiences Addressed ............................... 180

The Personal Journal’s Relationship With/In Time ............................................................ 211

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 221

CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................... 227

INTRODUCTION TO TWENTIETH CENTURY MORMON HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE “GOLDEN
AGE” ......................................................................................................................................... 231

Institutional Efforts to Staunch “Professional” Histories ................................................... 245

Family History: A Church-inspired Methodology ............................................................... 248

WOMEN, ERA, AND THE INSTITUTIONAL ETHOS OF SILENCE(ING) ........................................ 258

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 278

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 283

AFTERWARD ............................................................................................................... 293

JANUS AS HEURISTIC ............................................................................................................... 297

THE DOORWAY ......................................................................................................................... 298

CIRCULATION: TRADE AND WAR ............................................................................................. 307

TWO-FACED ............................................................................................................................. 311

GERMINATION .......................................................................................................................... 312

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 324
viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Nevada Pro-Family Coalition anti-ERA advertisement ...................................... 3
Figure 2: Pro-Family Coalition logo on cookbook ............................................................ 39
Figure 3: Allen journal entry ............................................................................................. 42
Figure 4: Sandra Allen Self-Portrait ................................................................................. 80
Figure 5: Sandra Allen, Pride in New Mexico ................................................................... 82
Figure 6: Sandra, Cheryl, and Carol Carlson (obscured) .................................................. 83
Figure 7: Relief Society Certificate of Donation ............................................................... 87
Figure 8: Joseph and Emma Smith, Nauvoo Monument to Women ............................... 120
Figure 9: 1933 Relief Society Monument, Nauvoo ......................................................... 124
Figure 10: Woman and Her Talents, Nauvoo Monument to Women ............................. 126
Figure 11: Joyful Moment, Nauvoo Monument to Women ............................................. 127
Figure 12: The cover of one of Allen's journals .............................................................. 163
Figure 13: Entrance to the LDS Granite Mountain Vault at Little Cottonwood Canyon,
Utah ................................................................................................................................. 165
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PREFACE

When transcribing Sandra Allen’s original writings, I have attempted to maintain
her exact phrasing and punctuation. Given that her personal journals were handwritten
and unedited, Allen made on occasion what English teachers might call “common errors”
in spelling and punctuation. My overall approach to editing has been to apply a light
touch evenly. I have made adjustments only when I felt the omission of a word, a
misspelling, or misplaced punctuation mark caused a stumbling block for readers. Some
might find my editorial decisions idiosyncratic, and I would have little to say in my
defense. I applied my best judgment at the time. Edits are indicated with brackets.
As an outsider to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have
undoubtedly misused, misinterpreted, or failed to recognize the nuance associated with
some terms. As a general rule, I refer to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints as Mormons and the organization as the Mormon Church for brevity’s sake.
My understanding is that the preferred name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, and that those inside the community tend to refer to other members as LDS.
Mormons also refer to themselves as Saints as in, Saints of Latter-days. In keeping with
what I perceived to be common usage, I use Saints to refer to the early followers of
Joseph Smith, Jr. (although the term is used and still applies). Mormon appears to have
been intended and interpreted as a slight given that Smith’s followers called themselves
Saints. My perception is that Mormons have appropriated this term and made it their
own; I would not use it if I believed it caused offense. Native Americans are called
Lamanites. Mormons refer to non-Mormons as Gentiles.