Composition Theory for the Postmodern Classroom

Composition Theory for the Postmodern Classroom is a collection of the most outstanding articles published in the Journal of Advanced Composition over the last decade. Together these essays represent the breadth and strength of composition scholarship that has fruitfully engaged with critical theory in its many manifestations. In drawing on the critical discourses of philosophers, feminists, literary theorists, African Americanists, cultural theorists, and others, these compositionists have enriched the discourse in the field, broadened intellectual conceptions of the multiple roles and functions of discourse, and opened up an infinite number of questions and new possibilities for composition theory and pedagogy.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Jacqueline Jones Royster Introduction Gary A. Olson and Sidney I. Dobrin The Process of Writing The Process of Writing: A Philosophical Base in Hermeneutics James L. Kinneavy Dichotomy, Consubstantiality, Technical Writing, Literary Theory: The Double Orthodox Curse Jasper Neel Writing in the Graduate Curriculum: Literary Criticism as Composition Patricia A. Sullivan What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Women and Writing Blocks Mary Kupiec Cayton Theory and the Teaching of Writing Some Difficulties with Collaborative Learning David W. Smit Becoming Aware of the Myth of Presence Reed Way Dasenbrock Toward an Ethics of Teaching Writing in a Hazardous Context--The University Sandy Moore and Michael Kleine Repositioning the Profession: Teaching Writing to African American Students Thomas Fox The Essay and Composition Theory Rediscovering the Essay W. Ross Winterowd The Recent Rise of Literary Nonfiction: A Cautionary Assay Douglas Hesse Why Don't We Write What We Teach? And Publish It? Lynn Z. Bloom Gender, Culture, and Radical Pedagogy Sexism in Academic Styles of Learning David Bleich The Dialectic Suppression of Feminist Thought Robert G. Wood Paulo Freire and the Politics of Postcolonialism Henry A. Giroux After Progressivism: Modern Composition, Institutional Service, and Cultural Studies Michael Murphy The Other Reader Joseph Harris Articulation Theory and the Problem of Determination: A Reading of Lives on the Boundary John Trimbur Peer Response in the Multicultural Composition Classroom: Dissensus--A Dream (Deferred) Carrie Shively Leverez Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Discourse Nietzsche in Basel: Writing Reading J. Hills Miller Externalism and the Production of Discourse Thomas Kent Interrupting the Conversation: The Constructionist Dialogue in Composition Joseph Petraglia Defining Rhetoric--and Us: A Meditation on Burke's Definitions Richard M. Coe Afterword Linda Brodkey Contributors Index

About the Author :
Gary A. Olson is Professor of English and teaches in the graduate program in rhetoric and composition at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Philosophy, Rhetoric, Literary Criticism: (Inter)views. Olson served as editor of the Journal of Advanced Composition from 1985-1994. Sidney I. Dobrin teaches composition, technical writing, and professional writing for graduate students at the University of South Florida, where he serves as Associate Editor of JAC.

Review :
"...Composition Theory for the Postmodern Classroom comes into place at a critical moment. We have worked assiduously to flesh out the ways and means of composition for a new era. This text helps to document our way." --Jones Royster, from the Foreword "JAC has been a central resource for the presentation and consideration of 'theory' in composition studies. These essays act as springboards for reflecting on the ways in which we interrogate and problematize in this discourse community. "As I read the collection of essays, I was frequently reminded that despite seemingly indefinite variation in the circumstances of teaching, composition teachers do not treat theory as a refuge from practice, but value instead what it can tell them about writing and writing pedagogy. I hear in these essays echoes of an inclination to reject precepts that ignore writing and teaching in the name of common sense, and I see traces on the paths taken of the uncommon intention to practice and teach writing--for a change." -- Linda Brodkey, from the Afterword