Shows how the textuality of the United States Constitution, the most venerable of classic democratic icons, might be exploited to nurture postmodern ethics. Shows how Kenneth Burke's reading of the Constitution accords with and augments the postmodern theories of J.-F. Lyotard and S. Jarratt. Discusses a postmodern Constitution and the…

Argues that the trend in composition scholarship to interrogate how gender, race, ethnicity, and power relationships manifest themselves in discursive practices is, in effect, a move toward the ethical, toward understanding the encounter with the Other. Suggests that postcolonial theory gives composition scholars the vocabulary they need to…

Presents an interview with Jean-Francois Lyotard, which provides insight into many concerns, including his views on culture, feminism, postmodernism, and writing. Explains Lyotard's belief that philosophy and inquiry ought to pursue perpetual questions as opposed to "answers" or mastery of a subject. (TB)

Examines the contradiction between S. Crowley and L. Faigley, who suggest that postmodernism has eliminated any role for linguistics in composition studies, and M. Nystrand, S. Greene, and J. Wiemelt, who maintain that research inspired by M.A.K. Halliday and M. Bakhtin promises to restore linguistics to a central place. (TB)

Draws on John Dewey to address an impasse in composition studies concerning the state of the agent in writing. Attempts to negotiate a middle ground between the theoretical extremes of the foundationalists' autonomous individualism and postmodernists' agentless subjectivity. (TB)

Suggests that while postmodern criticism has enjoyed a certain amount of currency, the cost of this success has come in the form of detachment. Argues that a reconfiguration of the relations between nature and culture suggests that the posthuman provides us with a fresh perspective from which to examine rhetoric. Identifies some of the problems…

Claims the story of the death of the author carries with it an edifying mission: (1) it gets rid of the mystifying figure of the author; and (2) it points the way toward rehabilitating the notion of agency. Supports Walter Benjamin's position that argues a need to socialize the author as producer. (NH)

Argues that Slavoj Zizek's writings show why the turn to theory could actually hurt the field of composition by increasing the discipline's level of ideological misrecognition concerning the economics and politics of higher education. Argues that educators should stop using theory as a virtual way of escaping their own real practices. (SG)

Explores how positivism and empiricism may be distinguished in practice by examining four proposals for writing pedagogy based on behaviorist learning theory. Argues that empiricism offers a viable means of addressing what Douglas Hess has dubbed "the splendid paradox of postmodernism." Suggests several implications for empiricism in…

Explores cynicism and its institutional and pedagogical impact on cultural studies composition by discussing how cynicism in contemporary emotion culture can be understood as an effect of the shifting emotional identifications in postmodernism, particularly in light of mass-mediated consciousness. Argues that it is through cultural studies'…

Explores the inescapable, irreconcilable role of virtue in rhetoric and writing instruction and the (im)possibilities of ethical response to student writing. Considers the place of values instruction in contemporary education by examining its historical precedents in classical rhetoric and its relationship to the liberatory, multicultural mission…

Argues that Marxism is as much an ethical position that resists the foreclosure of identity as it is a political position. Claims a Marxist standpoint could facilitate the political and ethical accountability that the current politicized composition pedagogies seek while also constructing the classroom as a site for active participation in the…

Reviews the debate over teachers' exercise of power and authority. Argues the need to recognize the different forms in which teachers exercise power and students achieve real agency. Analyzes the means by which pedagogical work is "capitalized." (NH)

Discusses Mindy Faber's autobiographical video as an allegory of contradictory interpretations of female hysteria as both a theater of femininity and feminist revolt. Provides an analysis of the resonance between student responses to "Delirium" (her auto/biographical video about her mother's long battle with mental illness) and…

Claims a consumerism model manifests itself in first-year composition programs. Discusses the academic situation generally and English Departments specifically to explore how the current reform movement clashes with postmodern values in this discipline. (NH)