History Bump

In class,

1. Discuss assigned readings. There will be no assigned discussion leaders; instead, I'll ask each person to contribute to an examination of the texts.
   
2. As we think about Berkenkotter & Huckin, I particularly want to attend to the discussion of CCCC topoi on 112-113.
   
3. As we think about the final chapter of White, I'll be interested to hear what use each of you is making of his argument.
   
4. Regarding Certeau: (a) I propose that we take up the question of how the research you are doing is (or is not) ideological. (b) His first major section, beginning on 22, offers a very useful framework for thinking about the applicability of Painter to the study of composition history. As we apply this framework, however, we should return to White's cautions about the construction of "context": When referring to the notion of "context," literary theorists commonly assume "that this context—the 'historical milieu'—has a concreteness and an accessibility that the work itself can never have," without recognizing that context, too, is a constructed fiction. "The relationship between the past to be analyzed and historical works produced by analysis of the documents is paradoxical; the more we know about the past, the more difficult it is to generalize about it" (White 89).
   
5. Workshop: In class, we'll draft CCCC proposals based on your 611 research. If you have another project that you're wanting to propose to the convention, bring that with you so that you can work on it, instead. My objective here is to re-frame the research you are doing, for the CCCC audience and occasion—which I think can help you refresh yourself on your work for this course.