Writing Theory and Critical Theory

by Clifford, John; Schilb, John

• ISBN13: 9780873525763
• ISBN10: 0873525760
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-05-01
• Publisher: Modern Language Assn of Amer

Summary

Writing Theory and Critical Theory discusses the growing body of work linking composition studies and literary studies. Enlisting the strategies of deconstruction, hermeneutics, postmodernism, feminism, neo-Marxism, neopragmatism, psychoanalysis, reader-response criticism, and cultural studies, the twenty-seven contributors investigate the resources that critical theory can bring to an examination of discourse. Part 1, "Refiguring Traditions", contains six essays that use critical theory to illuminate the history and orthodoxies of writing instruction. The four essays in part 2, "The Language and Authority of Theory", analyze recent clashes between theorist and empirical researchers. Part 3, "Narrative Theory and Narratives", addresses issues ranging from the significance of narrative as a defining feature of human nature to the problems -- both political and pedagogical -- with a writing course based on "difference". In the final section, a symposium, five contributors evaluate their roles in past and future developments in composition. Composition teachers, critical theorists, and writing program administrators will find this collection a provocative and insightful overview of the field of composition studies.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Series
Introduction	p. 1
Composition as a Cultural Artifact: Rethinking History as Theory	p. 19
"On a topic of your own choosing ..."	p. 33
Reading and Writing in the Classroom and the Profession	p. 53
On Conventions and Collaboration: The Open Road and the Iron Cage	p. 73
Rhetoric, Social Construction, and Gender: Is It Bad to Be Sentimental?	p. 96
The Doubleness of Writing and Permission to Lie	p. 109
Theory, Theory Talk, and Composition	p. 127
The Rhetoric of Theory	p. 141
Science, Theory, and the Politics of Empirical Studies in the English Department	p. 148
Teaching Composition and Reading Lacan: An Exploration in Wild Analysis	p. 159
Is There a Life in This Text? Reimagining Narrative	p. 179
Essays and Experience, Time and Rhetoric	p. 195
Street Fights over the Impossibility of Theory: A Report of a Seminar	p. 212
Making a Federal Case out of Difference: The Politics of Pedagogy, Publicity, and Postponement	p. 236
A Writing Program Administrator's Response	p. 262
Topic or Pedagogy?	p. 271
Narrating Conflict	p. 278
On the (Pendulum-)Swinging Eighties	p. 289
My Life in Theory	p. 300
Learning to Live with Your Past and Liking It	p. 306
"Gender and Reading" Revisited	p. 313
A Letter to the Editors	p. 319
"Rhetoric Is Politics," Said the Ancient. "How Much So," I Wonder	p. 327
Constructing Narratives, Seeking Change	p. 335
Theory, Theories, Politics, and Journeys	p. 341
Works Cited	p. 348
Index	p. 369
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