Composition as a Human Science Contributions to the Self-Understanding of a Discipline

by Phelps, Louise Wetherbee

• ISBN13: 9780195042696
• ISBN10: 0195042697
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1988-10-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Although composition has in the last twenty years established itself intellectually and institutionally as a field of inquiry with its own distinctive subject matter, it remains in a state of anarchy regarding fundamental premises and values. This groundbreaking collection of essays is one of the first works to reflect directly and systematically on the conceptual and ethical basis for composition studies as a new discipline of written language. Phelps articulates a philosophy of composition generous enough to accommodate all the strands of current work without being overly eclectic--an open framework subject to modification and addition as the field develops. She draws on wide reading in the humanities and social sciences--including cognitive science, linguistics, literary theory, education, philosophy, hermeneutics, rhetoric, and psychology--to define the contribution and place of composition studies within the larger intellectual and cultural community. The book will therefore interest theorists and scholars in a wide variety of fields. Table of Contents: Preface:Theory is Autobiography. Part I: Constructing an Ecology of Composition. The Cultural Ground. The Idea of Composition as a Discipline. Part II:The Process of Reconstruction: Possibilities for a Post-Critical Rhetoric. Imagining a Psychology of Composition. Literacy and the Limits of the Natural Attitude. The Dance of Discourse. Dialectics of Coherence. The Third Way: Ricoeur and the Problem of Method of Method. Part III: Application: Toward a Human Science Disciplined by Practical Wisdom. Bibliography.