College English - Volume 59, Issue 8, 1997

Discusses pedagogical strategies that encourage keener and more sensitive student reactions to the postcolonial problematics represented in two essays by Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff, essays which often provoke hostility in mainstream, White, middle-class undergraduates. Discusses ways to create a context in the literature or writing classroom that discourages a facile dismissal of Cliff.

Shows how some key postmodern ideas about texts forced a teacher and her students to rethink typical writing assignments and typical student responses. Describes the assignments and considers how they invite postmodern critique. Suggests giving up grandiose, romantic notions that Freshman Composition can fix students either personally or politically.