A student in California protests the inclusion of Persepolis in an English course. In another case, several Duke students refused to read Fun Home because of the content. Are these examples of principled stances? Or are we simply seeing the continued exclusion of the “other”? I believe that much of this is purely ideological. Culture is…
Gornick’s description of life writing that reveals the “loneliness of the monster” and the “cunning of the innocent” is exactly the performance of standpoint, the portrayal of understanding one’s social position within the greater cultural hierarchy. This inherently questions the assumptions of hierarchy. The point of vantage, on the other hand, is to establish one’s…
When I envisioned my teaching internship (Fall 2013 ENG 247.02), I was thinking that I would help students learn to better use (and appreciate) social media as a tool for reaching readers. Yes, I did want them to engage in genuine interactions with potential audiences beyond the classroom, but I was still looking at social…
James Berlin criques Linda Flowers and John Hayes for their application of cognitive rhetoric to the composition process. “the rhetoric of cognitive psychology refuses the ideological question, resting secure instead in its scientific examination of the compositing process” (Berlin 482), but “The business of cognitive psychology is to enable us to learn to think in…
