Skip to content
2018
Volume 70, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0010-096X
  • E-ISSN: 1939-9006
side by side viewer icon HTML

Abstract

This article addresses an impasse between rhetoric and composition practice and theory. On one hand, from the poststructural through the posthuman, our most vigorous theories challenge classical notions of selfhood and agency. On the other hand, from institutional assessment through writing about writing, composition’s most vigorous practices entail fairly traditional ideas about selfhood and agency. This piece crosses over the impasse by suggesting that “self” and “agency” are vital fantasies for composition, and that negotiating these fantasies is an ethical process. At its heart, I argue, composition is any ethical, collective working out of these fantastical concepts that helps adaptive individuals more freely emerge.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.58680/ccc201829923
2018-12-01
2025-02-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ccc/70/2/collegecompositionandcommunication29923.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.58680/ccc201829923&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Allen Ira J. The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory U of Pittsburgh P 2018
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Allen Ira J. “Troubled Freedom, Rhetorical Personhood, and Democracy’s Ongoing Constitution.” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 18 2 2015 195 215
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bad Religion “A Walk.” The Grey Race Atlantic Records 1996
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Barad Karen Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning Duke UP 2007
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Belk John “Maintaining a Humanistic Center: Rhetorical Humanism as a Holistic Framework for Writing Programs.” Composition Forum 40 2018
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Brennan Teresa The Transmission of Affect Cornell UP 2004
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Boyle Casey “Writing and Rhetoric and/as Posthuman Practice.” College English 78 6 2016 32 54
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Burke Kenneth “The Virtues and Limitations of Debunking.” The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action Vintage Books 1957
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Cooper Marilyn “Rhetorical Agency as Emergent and Enacted.” College Composition and Communication 62 3 2011 420 49
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Crowley Sharon Composition in the University: Historical and Polemical Essays U of Pittsburgh P 1998
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Daniel James Rushing “The Event That We Are: Ontology, Rhetorical Agency, and Alain Badiou.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 49 3 2016 254 76
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Davis Diane Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations U of Pittsburgh P 2010
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Detweiler Eric “‘/’ ‘And’ ‘-’?: An Empirical Consideration of the Relationship between ‘Rhetoric’ and ‘Composition,’” enculturation 21 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Dobrin Sidney Postcomposition Southern Illinois UP 2011
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Faigley Lester Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition U of Pittsburgh P 1992
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Fisher Roger Ury William Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In Penguin Books 1981
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Fisher Roger Ury William “Teaching the Post-modern Rhetor: Continuing the Conversation on Rhetorical Agency.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35 4 2005 107 13
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Gunn Joshua “Refitting Fantasy: Psychoanalysis, Subjectivity, and Talking to the Dead.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 90 1 2004 1 23
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Hartmann Heinz Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation Translated by Rapaport David International Universities P 1958
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Katherine Hayles N. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis U of Chicago P 2012
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hedengren Mary “The Writing Teacher Who Writes: Creative Writing, Ancient Rhetoric, and Composition Instruction.” Pedagogy 16 2 2016 191 206
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Kirsch Gesa Ritchie Joy “Beyond the Personal: Theorizing a Politics of Location in Composition Research.” College Composition and Communication 46 1 1995 7 29
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Mailloux Steven Rhetoric’s Pragmatism: Essays in Rhetorical Hermeneutics Pennsylvania State UP 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Miller Carolyn “What Can Automation Tell Us about Agency?” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 37 2 2007 137 57
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Nietzsche Friedrich The Will to Power Translated by Kaufmann Walter Hollingdale R. J. edited by Kaufmann Walter Vintage Books 1968
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Rhodes Jacqueline Radical Feminism, Writing, and Critical Agency: From Manifesto to Modem State U of New York P 2005
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Rickert Thomas Acts of Enjoyment: Rhetoric, Ẑiẑek, and the Return of the Subject U of Pittsburgh P 2007
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Rivers Nathaniel “Deep Ambivalence and Wild Objects: Toward a Strange Environmental Rhetoric.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45 5 2015 420 40
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Sánchez Raúl “Outside the Text: Retheorizing Empiricism and Identity.” College English 74 3 2012 234 46
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Siegel Daniel The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are Guilford P 1999
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Thompson Evan Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind Harvard UP 2007
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Ẑiẑek, Slavoj The Plague of Fantasies Verso 1997
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.58680/ccc201829923
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error