This article addresses an impasse between rhetoric and composition practice and theory. On one hand, from the poststructural through the posthuman, our most vigorous theories challenge classical notions of selfhood and agency. On the other hand, from institutional assessment through writing about writing, composition's most vigorous practices…

George Vizenor is author of more than twenty books of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and critical theory. Often, his scholarship uses postmodern theory to describe and complicate notions of representation and misrepresentation of Native people. At the heart of Vizenor's work is the proposition that there is no such thing as an "indian." In fact,…

This essay argues that a trend in histories of literary and writing studies is to bifurcate the origins of the fields and so engage in those modernist narrative fallacies described by Jean-Francois Lyotard. Such works limit our understanding of past practices and the longstanding connections between disciplinarity and labor. (Contains 2 notes.)

Offers a postmodern view of teacher responses to student writing. Promotes a meaning of "voice" that is different from the standard usage, and emphasizes the notion of voice instead of role as a way to understand teacher response. (SR)

Uses the lens of postcolonial theory to reflect on the author's uses of a varied series of writing pedagogies in cross-cultural classrooms at an international college. Suggests that a pedagogy constructed against the backdrop of postcolonial theory might provide both students and their teacher in such a cross-cultural setting with a more complex…

Notes the contribution of an earlier article to a geographic study of composition; extends that contribution by using concepts from postmodern geography to explore how spaces/places are socially produced through discourse and how these constructed spaces can then deny their connections to material reality or mask material conditions. Interprets…

Analyzes three examples of research in technical communication to illustrate the distinctions among modernism, antimodernism, and postmodernism. Suggests that antimodern rejections of the scientific enterprise within composition studies and technical communication are valuable in a culture in which science seems to have unlimited authority. (RS)

Uses a specific poetics of collage to explore the parallels between artistic and written discourse to show that composing a persuasive collage or hypertext requires rhetorical skill. Shows also how this kind of skill is modeled in the work of the American collage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-72). Discusses intertextuality and postmodern…

Examines various narratives about literacy, and how they influence the thinking of people in composition studies. Uses J. Lyotard's notions of the grand narratives of modernism and the little narratives of postmodernism to examine: conflicted politics of composition studies; the relationship of theory and ideology; ethical questions of research;…

Argues that womanist theology (which employs a socioreligious hermeneutic that examines and critiques racism, oppression, and classism) and the texts it gathers can serve as efficacious course content for other-literate students. Notes that womanist theology offers students a scholarly discipline that expresses inter- and intracultural rhetorical…

Presents a transcript of the electronic discourse in response to Lester Faigley's recent book, "Fragments of Rationality," produced by a networked graduate seminar in composition studies. Discusses the impact of postmodernism on the composition classroom and the potential usefulness of similar networked attempts to write collaboratively.…

Considers how writing teachers, when faced with student writing that betrays sexist, racist, or homophobic sentiments, should respond. Addresses the difficulty of asserting moral imperatives in the light of current antifoundationalist theory. Argues for a reliance on a "necessary directionality" toward comprehensive moral truths. (HB)