 |
 |
Cathy et al. I notice in particular the privileging in (some) American comp/rhet of an expressivist view of writing--that is, writing as a form of self-discovery and self-expression. I haven't noticed this approach nearly as much in scholarship and teaching by Canadians. I think we tend instead to stress writing as engagement with a subject matter, rather than engagement with "the self"--at least, in a university context. Which may be why we haven't introduced many writing courses which don't have a clear academic subject (whether that be literature or engineering). Our emphasis on the reading/writing link and on critique, as you and Margaret have noted, seems to me to be connected to our non-expressivist tradition, if you will (how's that for an identity based on negation?). Philippa