Writing Theory and Critical Theory

Abstract

Writing Theory and Critical Theory discusses the growing body of work linking composition studies and literary studies. Enlisting the strategies of deconstruction, hermeneutics, post-modernism, 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. four essays in part 2, The Language and Authority of Theory, analyze recent clashes between theorists 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 an 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.