The construction of feminine spectatorship in Garrison Keillor's radio monologues

Abstract

In this essay, the monologues of Garrison Keillor on the radio program, A Prairie Home Companion (later American Radio Company), are analyzed to discover how a feminine spectator is constructed rhetorically in a text. Keillor's monologues, we suggest, create a preferred spectator position that relies on traditionally feminine competencies. This construction is accomplished through Keillor's refusal to privilege vision, dismantling of the male gaze, creation of Lake Wobegon as a feminine setting, and feminine speaking style. In his adoption of the feminine spectator perspective, Keillor provides an opportunity for listeners to experience and accord value to a feminist epistemology.