John Clifford

Writing Theory and Critical Theory - Research and Scholarship in Composition 3 John Clifford

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. The 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.