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January 26, 2005
Roen M & M
Roen, Duane H., and Stuart C. Brown, and Theresa Enos, eds. Living Rhetoric and Composition: Stories of the Discipline. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
1999.
Hmmm… With this particular work I had to decide if I should be looking at the methods/methodology from the perspective of the editors or from the 19 writers who contributed and provided “Stories of the Discipline”. I decided to take it from the editors point of view since they were actually doing the research. The editors state, “we hope each contributor to this collection will in some way serve as a mentor to those just entering the field” (xvii).
Roen, Brown and Enos bring us a collection of 19 stories from Corbett, Lauer, Bazerman, Bishop, Coe, Covino, D’Angelo, R. Enos, T. Enos, Fulkerson, Kinneavy, Lloyd-Jones, Roen, Trimbur, Vitanza, Welch, White, Horner, Brown, and Royster. In the forward, Andrea Lunsford describes the work as “retrospective snapshots of a field in the making” (xi). Lunsford also expresses concern that all the contributors are White and that only 5 of the writers are women (xii). The editors explain in the preface that they strove for an “equitable” portrayal but “primarily women and people of color” were among those to drop out of the project (xvi).
Interestingly, the work was inspired on the campus of Syracuse University when Roen visited with philosophy professor Sam Gorovitz and saw the collection Falling in Love with Wisdom: American Philosophers Talk About Their Calling. Also, it should not go without mentioning that our treasured professor has the first comment on the back cover!
Stance of Researcher/Writer
In putting together this collection, there seems to be a humanistic faith among these editors that fundamental human truths will be revealed via the art of writing and that these kernels of wisdom can be taken and used by future generations. There is no analysis of the stories and the writings stand and speak for themselves (though there may have been some editing---is this the reason “women” and “people of color” dropped out? Did these groups interfere with the love story?)
His/Her Purpose
To record a professional and personal history of the discipline through the narratives of recognized individuals some of whom are getting close to retirement in order to forge a bond with current and future generations of workers in the field.
Method of Data Collection
Qualitative and biased…Stories were sought from those well-known in the field. This seems a limited sampling, but this is supposed to be a love story. There is a common theme of struggle in the stories as the writers work to find their calling. And there is even some disbelief once they have discovered it. Corbett tells us he feels like a fraud (6) and Bishop shares “Tell me I’m a prominent scholar and I pinch myself” (25).
Method of Analysis
It would be interesting to submit these narratives and others to some sort of linguistic analysis(Pennebaker?). The language would then be coded, but I’m not sure how helpful this would be since these stories were meant to reflect success.
Method of Representation
The editors tell us that a number of different professions in the field have been reflected, “whether historian, researcher, theorist, or practitioner, each of these contributors is, however, a teacher” (xv). We are also told that narratives from senior and junior members of the field have been collected to reflect the changes over time (xvi). As the writers are primarily “White and male and tenured” the editors explain that this is a reflection of how things were (xvi). The editors are hopeful that futures such volumes will reflect “how the profession is now being configured along gender, ethnic and class lines” (xvi).
I think it would be fair to say that this is not a random sampling!
Apparent Disciplinary Aim
The goal here is to celebrate the field of rhetoric and composition, not to critique it.
Posted by vwatts at January 26, 2005 11:00 AM
Comments
Re your comment:
"Interestingly, the work was inspired on the campus of Syracuse University when Roen visited with philosophy professor Sam Gorovitz and saw the collection Falling in Love with Wisdom: American Philosophers Talk About Their Calling. Also, it should not go without mentioning that our treasured professor has the first comment on the back cover!"
Eek! My new boss! This is brain-wrenching in deed. -clo
Posted by: clo at January 26, 2005 11:20 AM
So... was any method of analysis reported by the editors?
Off topic again:
It seems that this is a sort of "festschrift", but I can't believe that "white and male and tenured" is how it was, when the dominant story for the last 50 years seems to be "grad students and adjuncts".
What period is the "was" under discussion?
Posted by: clo at January 26, 2005 11:25 AM
I'm not really sure as to the specific period of time as this wasn't stated clearly (anywhere that I could find) by the editors. However, they do state, in reference to the "senior" contributors, "They provide a sense of the changes, the historical development of the profession as it has been transformed over the last 50 years" (XVI). Based on the narratives, some of which talk about attending school to avoid Vietnam, I would guess roughly that the 50 years covers from the 1950s to 1999 when the book was published. Perhaps these White males weren't tenured when they started but were at the time they were writing. They achieved success--that's why they're in the collection. That's why I wonder how accurate a picture this book, though enjoyable, can give us of the field.
Oh, and no, this did not seem to be about analysis--just a collection of stories.
Posted by: Vanessa at January 26, 2005 11:40 AM
Good beginning with blogging, Vanessa. Now go back in to your entry, please, and file it in the categories.
Posted by: senioritis at January 26, 2005 08:08 PM
Becky,
How do I file it in the categories? I've been playing around the site, but can't seem to figure this out.
Posted by: VW at January 27, 2005 10:41 AM