LISTSERV mailing list manager LISTSERV 16.0

Help for CASLL-L Archives


CASLL-L Archives

CASLL-L Archives


CASLL-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

CASLL-L Home

CASLL-L Home

CASLL-L  July 1998

CASLL-L July 1998

Subject:

Re: Learning to write by writing lit crit essays

From:

"/Inkshed <[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

CASLL/Inkshed <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 21 Jul 1998 15:55:45 -0800

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (113 lines)

Russ Hunt wrote in response to Sandra Dueck:

I have a theory about that.  I
>think _we're_ people who came to those lit crit essays with an
>already pretty fully developed sense of what it's like for a piece of
>writing to have an engaged reader.  But most of my students aren't
>like that.  Writing is, for them, a test, not an opportunity to
>connect.  They don't acquire many skills from writing those lit crit
>essays, and they mostly learn to detest doing that kind of thing, and
>doing it to literature.  Yes, I know there are exceptions; the
>exceptions, in my view, are people who don't much need English
>classes.
>
>So while I certainly agree that the things Sandra says she learned
>from writing those essays are good things to learn, I'm still
>convinced that there's only a small subset of my students who are
>going to learn them that way -- and they're precisely the people that
>I need to worry about least.

I  guess i have to jump in here - as a kind of novice to the forum and  the
range of discussions here   I agree with Russ that Sandra makes some
important points, but my experience  is quite a different story -  i feel
many of us arrived  at the University as story tellers, poets, working
writers - and still get hamstrung by the lit-crit genre - because there is
more  occuring  there in terms of power and knowledge structures than the
'techne' of 'good writing"  - I do believe there are  "textual identities "
made and un-made in the daily practices of lit classes - despite a
student's love of literature - or their best intentions to become  teachers
of English and pass on that love of literature --

S point I find quite ironic is that "reading" is so undervalued  -- in lit
classes so much of the discipline is disguised as love of reading - but we
place all the emphasis on   verbal performance in seminars  ( genre
specific utterances could be taken up in  another discussion altogether)
and individually writing in the tacit privileged genres of the discipline.


 i arrived  at the university - as an adult "mature" student with a
creative writing diploma under  my belt, a fairly successful semester at a
wise and challenging community  college program, and upon my arrival at SFU
got slapped in the chops by  some fairly heavy  gatekeeping - one memorable
statement  by an  esteemed prof who told me  "that I would never be a
writer and I would never be a graduate student"because I couldn't
instinctively punctuate succeded in crippling me for years.  A lifelong
love of writing shriveled into fear and shame, and I  managed to finish my
english BA - and enjoyed some wonderful lit  courses along the way,  but
the  voice  rang true - i didn't know how to instively punctuate  -I did
not know how to instinctively  write lit crit essays either - and never
learned the meta -textual forms that Sandra speaks of  -- so my grades
careened from the spectacular to the borderline often in the same semester.
I exited the program with the belief that I could  never do graduate work
in English and sought out Social Sciences/Education - convincing myself
that I really wanted to look at the social lives attached  to texts - or
that and I wanted to understand my own educational experience as an adult
female learner -- but  truly - English grad studies  scared me to death
-and I  thought - I would never survive the writing demands  - because of
my obvious genetic grammatical disability.

i still don't punctuate instinctively - and never will  --  I am  near
completion of my dissertation -I still struggle with the  meta-textual
techniques of argument/ compare contrast, etc.  i am a new comer to the
genre theory discourse - but apparntly have been writing alongside it  for
years    (I  love to explore the link between bodies, institutions and
texts - so I value the contribution of Foucault, technologies of power /
Dorothy Smith textually mediation of identity / Ricouer texts as human
action / Atkinson - ethnography and writing stuff)

 And I  am un-learning some  myths about writing  (real writing) creative
writing , research and academic genres etc.  this year I had the  pleasure
of working in Janet Giltrow's Writing Centre - and I recognised in many of
the students,  the fear, the bewilderment, the seemingly arbitrary
evaluation of it all -- I admit that while I did have some wonderful
instructors in my undergrad years  -I am afraid that their positive voices
seemed very faint and therapeutic  compared to the "truth" and rigor of the
gate-keeper voices  -- the power of the technologies of  text/ the regimes
of truth of the English lit-crit genre are  deep, historically valid and
supported by the very sinews of the general university instituional
practices -- very few of us believe we can write,  are meant to be here
legitimately, can buck the imposter syndrome of valuing of our  writing
practices -- I disguised asI taught compostion  and writing coures to
teachers that even teachers are terrified to "write real writing"  - even
as they develop curriculum to teach students composition and creative
writing -

  Writing is, for them, a test, not an opportunity to
>connect.  They don't acquire many skills from writing those lit crit
>essays, and they mostly learn to detest doing that kind of thing, and
>doing it to literature.  Yes, I know there are exceptions; the
>exceptions, in my view, are people who don't much need English
>classes.
>

>And I would buy that absolutely, and argue further that trial and
>error and wanting to know is the best -- even, perhaps, the only --
>way to learn this kind of thing, and our job as teachers is to
>create situations in which it's possible for students to come to
>want to know this kind of thing.  I don't think we do it by having
>them write lit crit, and I don't think we do it by telling them
>about it, either.
>


I think talking about the power structures around post-secondary literacy
and writing practice regimes are important in every discipline  and I think
making some of these methodologies/technologies/ genres more explicit is
important - i recall taking many lit and poetry  classes - rarely being
exposed to "theory" or secondary sources and still having to replicate the
'sounds" of the  research genre -- i used to thank my "good ears" for the
success I did have -

Kathryn Alexander
FAculty of Education,
Simon Fraser University

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

Advanced Options


Options

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password


Search Archives

Search Archives


Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe


Archives

May 2023
February 2023
December 2022
November 2022
March 2022
September 2021
September 2020
August 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
September 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011, Week 1
January 2011
December 2010
October 2010
April 2010
February 2010
January 2010
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000
April 2000
March 2000
February 2000
January 2000
December 1999
November 1999
October 1999
September 1999
August 1999
July 1999
June 1999
May 1999
April 1999
March 1999
February 1999
January 1999
December 1998
November 1998
October 1998
September 1998
August 1998
July 1998
June 1998
May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
November 1996
October 1996
September 1996
August 1996
July 1996
June 1996
May 1996
April 1996
March 1996
February 1996
January 1996
December 1995
November 1995
October 1995
September 1995
August 1995
July 1995
June 1995
May 1995
April 1995
March 1995
February 1995
January 1995

ATOM RSS1 RSS2



LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA

CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager