I just read Russ' thoughtful & thought-provoking posting, & I think he frames precisely the dilemma of teaching writing as a component of an undergrad lit. class: the rhetorical situation (if I can use that term) of the first-year lit. essay is viewed by many as "inauthentic," as occuring only in a classroom context. I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying that the student lit. essay doesn't "exist in a social context"; I would agree that many find the context kind of artificial. I think the prospect of "inkshedding" as an anodyne to that artificial context--as a way of forming a temporary writing community--has helped me in my own teaching. Also, the contruction of online (virtual) communities via listservs has helped make the writing my own lit students do a little less teacher-directed. I also remain hopeful that, by asking students to engage in some rhetorical analysis of professional critical writing, they can, with guidance, position their own responses with greater confidence. Without that guided analysis, published criticism remains a kind of foreign language, something that others write, something to be quoted but seldom emulated. Critical collections & cribs (like Coles Notes) tend to provide students with a hearsay version of literary criticism. The students hear about the importance of literary scholarship, and they read the results of such scholarship, but they are seldom invited to participate in hands-on research? I guess that's why a casebook approach appeals to me for the forthcoming text: by including examples of both professional & student writing on one work (Crane's "Yellow Sky"), I'm hoping to create some semblance of dialogue--one that the students can enter & exit. > The way I've said this for some years is just the reverse of that: > students in literature courses are asked to write a form they have > never, ever read, and never will read. If Aviva's* right about how > we learn new genres, it's no surprise students don't learn this one, > because they have no opportunity to read examples of it in social > context. Examples of it don't _occur_ in social context. Russ goes further & says > > that "the essay on literature" doesn't > even exist in the academic journal. The rhetoric (the register, the > generic conventions, the patterns of given & new) of the articles > and essays which appear in (say) _Critical Inquiry_, > _Eighteenth-Century Studies_, _English Studies in Canada_, or > _Canadian Literature_ is radically various, and radically different > from anything that normally appears in student essays on literature. > > Or is asked to appear. The class essay is a genre unto itself, and > the only people who ever read them in enough volume to internalize > their conventions are English teachers. > I agree with most of this, but I still think that there are elements & examples of critical writing--especially in literary reviews & critical notes--that are both close in form to the class essay & accessible as models. Russ, you reference > a tidal wave about of stuff about the > _student_ essay on literature, all of it pedagogically grounded. I was, of course talking about the published literary essay--but I'd welcome references for any good, rhetorically-based discussions on the student paper as well. Most of the work I've seen focuses on "reading," not writing; and I found it interesting that two of the reviewers for the press asked for greater emphasis on the range of critical approaches available (deconstructivist, feminist, postmodern, etc.). Terry Eagleton once wrote that English studies lacks any method--& although his _Introduction to Literary Theory_ is a highly polemical take, he nonetheless highlights a familiar complaint among students: literature courses & resource texts seldom provide a bridge from reading to writing (apart from a few formulaic comments on thesis statements, finding topics, etc.). I'm struck by the tendency to substitute discussion of literary theory for methodology; and I'm disturbed how easily some of my 3rd & 4th-year students adopt a deconstructive stance for one essay, a feminist stance for the next...--as if the theories & their attendant methodologies were eminently interchangeable. A recent _College English_ essay on literary theory (a well-written essay) showed off 5 or 6 critical "takes" on a work--as if critical response were some kind exercise in role playing. Anyway, this posting has probably gone on too long. I wonder, though, if others have ideas on how present the writing of student lit. papers in a more legitimate social context? Thanks for the feedback. Will < < W.F. Garrett-Petts > > English & Modern Languages ._______ UCC, 900 McGill Rd | \ / | Voice: (250) 828-5248 Box 3010, Kamloops B.C. --|.O.|.O.|______. FAX: (250) 371-5697 B.C. V2C 5N3 Canada.__).-| = | = |/ \ | E-mail: [log in to unmask] >__) (.'---`.)Q.|.Q.|--. http://www.cariboo.bc.ca \\___// = | = |-.(__ `---'( .---. ) (__< \\.-.// `---' < < Writing is a Performance Art > >