Archived Weblog Entry - 06/28/2005: "Another Carnival"

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06/28/2005 Archived Entry: "Another Carnival"

Another Carnival
Over on Collin's blog (in the comments, Clancy proposes restarting the Carnival again, and with Collin, they suggest Richard Fulkerson's new essay "Composition at the Turn of the Century" in the new CCC. So? So let's rock. I'm half way through it right now, and (among other things) I'd like to take up:

Some of Fulkerson's ideas regarding cultural studies and its influence on composition. One point often missed is that the notion of critique generated by cultural studies (as faulty as it often is, and as dependent as it is on logical evaluation) should also be turned inward so that we look at our practices as well. That seldom happens (and Fulkerson so far doesn't make mention of it) as we focus instead only on cultural practices outside of our work (music, advertising, film, etc.). Thus the overall confusion: what does this have to do with writing?

Fulkerson's early claim that expressivism still dominates our profession. I haven't reached the place in the essay where I assume this will be fleshed out. But I'm interested in the claim b/c I have an essay coming out this fall in a collection about the practicum that Sid Dobrin put together. In that essay, I make the claim that expressivism as an ideology (not for the assignments it generates) is very dominant in composition studies and plays a strong role in keeping technology acquisition at a minimum, or prevents it from being learned altogether.

Replies: 3 comments

Yes, let's do this thing! I won't disappoint again.

Posted by Clancy @ 06/28/2005 01:15 PM EST

Right. Which I see Fulkerson missing entirely in his critique of CS. Those practices we assume to be natural (I also noted this on WPA the other day) are not natural: the assignmetns we give, the number we give, placement tests, assessment, etc. The very idea of writing as only typographic is an assumption we take for granted.
For all its problems, CS does give us a place to question our own practices; it is not only about reading popular culture. That CS doesn't apply its own practice to itself is also another issue worth considering (I'm reminded of Richard Miller's examination of the Open University's failure).

Posted by jeff @ 06/28/2005 12:20 PM EST

"One point often missed is that the notion of critique generated by cultural studies . . . should also be turned inward so that we look at our practices as well"

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I said as much in an MLA presentation a few years back. Maybe I oughta dust that thing off and get it out. My point was that before we decided not to do Cultural Studies anymore we should at least use CS to look at ourselves.

So I'm in on this carnival thing...will post over on my blog shortly.

Posted by Donna @ 06/28/2005 12:12 PM EST