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February 07, 2005
Feminist Projec(tions) 2.0
For this project, I will review several “Feminist” works in the field to determine the methods they employ when doing history. Once this is established, I hope to show how these writers have begun to disrupt and challenge the traditional paradigm of historical representation, but they have not yet fully made the shift for which White is calling. Instead, these histories become bound to disciplinary language and form, so that seem to fill in gaps of an already on-going historical project of the field. Once I have established how these feminist texts are at work, I hope to show how Transnational Feminism can give feminists in composition (and all compositionists really) practices to not only challenge the story of the history of the field, but also begin to shift the paradigm of historical research to include the interplay between past and present, as well as multiple perspectives, which White discusses.
The bibliography below is a generative one, but I do plan to skim most of the works on it, so that I may establish the parameters for the texts I address. I know that not all feminist works will use the same methodology, nor will they have the same purpose, but I am hoping that through this research, I will be able to establish some patterns at work from which I can choose representative texts for final analysis. (Ooh, that last statement was a bit of synecdoche and not irony. Perhaps I should rethink this or my history will fall under my own critique, too. But I suppose that is my point in all of this – how hard it is to challenge disciplinary commitments and methods.)
As for the Transnational Feminist portion of the project, I feel that I have a solid foundation of that knowledge, and in the latter part of the semester, I will be taking Mohanty’s Transnational Feminism Course. In that course, I will work on a paper about transnational feminism as method, so I will be able to use the work I do there to help inform this project. I believe that this project will also help me begin to articulate exactly what I mean when I say that feminism is a method, so I see this as a large project that spans two courses. For that reason, I believe the work will be manageable.
Preliminary Bibliography
Adams, Katherine H. A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women
Writers, 1880-1940. Albany: SUNY UP, 2001.
Ballif, Michelle. "Re/Dressing Histories; Or, On Re/Covering Figures Who Have Been Laid
Bare By Our Gaze." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 22.1 (Winter 1992): 91-8.
Bloom, Lynn Z., Donald A. Daiker, and Edward M. White, eds. Composition Studies in the New
Millennium: Rereading the Past, Rewriting the Future. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University Press, 2003.
Boardman, Kathleen A., and Joy Ritchie. "Rereading Feminism's Absence and Presence in
Composition." History, Reflection, and Narrative: The Professionalization of
Composition 1963-1983. Eds. Mary Rosner, Beth Boehm, and Debra Journet.
Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1998. 143-162.
Brody, Miriam. Manly Writing: Gender, Rhetoric, and the Rise of Composition. Carbondale, IL:
Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Campbell, JoAnn, ed. Toward a Feminist Rhetoric: The Writing of Gertrude Buck. Pittsburgh: U
Pittsburgh P, 1996.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. "Composition Studies from a Feminist Perspective." The Politics of Writing
Instruction: Postsecondary. Ed. Richard Bullock, John Trimbur, and Charles Schuster.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991. 137-154.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Tradition and the Female Talent." The Poetics of Gender.
Ed. Nancy K. Miller. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. 183-207.
Jarratt, Susan C. "Performing Feminisms, Histories, Rhetorics." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 22.1
(Winter 1992): 1-6
Jarratt, Susan C. "Speaking to the Past: Feminist Historiography in Rhetoric." Pre/Text 11.3-4
(Fall/Winter 1990): 189-210.
Jarratt, Susan C. and Lynn Worsham. Ed. Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words.
New York: Modern Language Assocation, 1998. 132-152.
Kirsch, Gesa E., Faye Spencer Maor, Lance Massey, Lee Nickoson-Massey, and Mary P,
Sheridan-Rabideau, eds. Feminism and Composition: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003.
Lunsford, Andrea A. Ed. Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition. Pittsburgh:
U Pittsburgh P, 1995. 203-26.
Rosenfelt, Deborah S. "Crossing Boundaries: Thinking Globally and Teaching Locally about
Women's Lives." Women's Studies Quarterly 3-4 (1998): 4-16.
Schell, Eileen E. Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers: Gender, Contingent Labor, and
Writing Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton-Cook, 1998.
Posted by jlwingar at February 7, 2005 07:49 PM
Comments
You've done some good bibliographic work. The difficulty is in finding works that are (a) feminist (b) composition (c) histories. Those are not plentiful, so you may have to look at the ways in which some feminist scholarship represents composition history even though it may not be doing composition history.
I can see four components to achieving your objective.
COMPONENT ONE: Feminist histories of composition. Some possible sources:
Adams, Katherine H. A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women Writers, 1880-1940. Albany: SUNY UP, 2001.
Brody, Miriam. Manly Writing: Gender, Rhetoric, and the Rise of Composition. Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Campbell, JoAnn, ed. Toward a Feminist Rhetoric: The Writing of Gertrude Buck. Pittsburgh: U Pittsburgh P, 1996.
Gere, Anne Ruggles. Writing Groups: History, Theory, and Implications. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.
Kates, Susan. "The Embodied Rhetoric of Hallie Quinn Brown." College English 59.1 (January 1997): 59-71.
Kates, Susan. "Subversive Feminism: The Politics of Correctness in Mary Augusta Jordan's Correct Writing and Speaking (1904)." College Composition and Communication 48.4 (December 1997): 501-517.
Miller, Susan. Assuming the Positions: Cultural Pedagogy and the Politics of Commonplace Writing. Pittsburgh, PA: U Pittsburgh P, 1998.
Schell, Eileen E. Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers: Gender, Contingent Labor, and Writing Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton-Cook, 1998.
Strickland, Donna. "Taking Dictation: The Emergence of Writing Programs and the Cultural Contradictions of Composition Teaching." College English 63.4 (March 2001): 457-479.
Tebeaux, Elizabeth. "Technical Writing for Women of the English Renaissance: Technology, Literacy, and the Emergence of a Genre." Written Communication 10 (April 1993): 164-99.
Wells, Susan. "Women Write Science: The Case of Hannah Longshore." College English 58.2 (February 1996): 176-91.
COMPONENT TWO: A history of feminist theory in composition. Some possible sources:
Boardman, Kathleen A., and Joy Ritchie. "Rereading Feminism's Absence and Presence in Composition." History, Reflection, and Narrative: The Professionalization of Composition 1963-1983. Eds. Mary Rosner, Beth Boehm, and Debra Journet. Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1998. 143-162.
Eichhorn, Jill, et alia. "A Symposium on Feminist Experiences in the Composition Classroom." College Composition and Communication 43.3 (October 1992): 297-322.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. "Composition Studies from a Feminist Perspective." The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. Ed. Richard Bullock, John Trimbur, and Charles Schuster. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991. 137-154.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. "Feminist Theories/Feminist Composition." College English 57.2 (February 1995): 201-212.
Haynes, Cynthia. "Virtual Diffusion: Ethics, Techné and Feminism at the End of the Cold Millennium." Passions, Pedagogies and 21st Century Technologies. Ed. Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999. 337-348.
Hoffmann, Leonore, and Margo Culley, eds. Women's Personal Narratives: Essays in Criticism and Pedagogy. New York: MLA, 1985.
Holbrook, Sue Ellen. "Women's Work: The Feminizing of Composition Studies." Rhetoric Review 9 (1991): 201-229.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. "Sexuality, Textuality: The Cultural Work of Plagiarism." College English 62.4 (March 2000): 473-491.
Jarratt, Susan C. "Feminism and Composition: The Case for Conflict." Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. Ed. Patricia Harkin and John Schilb. New York: MLA, 1991. 105-23.
Jarratt, Susan C. "Feminist Pedagogy." A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Ed. Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 113-131.
Lauer, Janice M. "The Feminization of Rhetoric and Composition Studies?" Rhetoric Review 13.2 (Spring 1995): 276-86.
Logan, Shirley Wilson. "'When and Where I Enter': Race, Gender, and Composition Studies." Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words. Ed. Susan C. Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. New York: Modern Language Assocation, 1998. 45-57.
Meisenhelder, Susan. "Redefining 'Powerful' Writing: Toward a Feminist Theory of Composition." Journal of Thought 20.3 (Fall 1985): 184-95.
Miller, Hildy. "Postmasculinist Directions in Writing Program Administration." WPA: Writing Program Administration 20.1-2 (Fall/Winter 1996): 49-65.
Miller, Susan. "The Feminization of Composition." The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. Ed. Richard Bullock, John Trimbur, and Charles Schuster. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991. 39-54.
Peterson, Linda H. "Gender and the Autobiographical Essay: Research Perspectives, Pedagogical Practices." College Composition and Communication 42.2 (May 1991): 170-183.
Phelps, Louise Wetherbee. "Becoming a Warrior: Lessons of the Feminist Workplace." Feminine Principles and Women's Experience in American Composition and Rhetoric. Ed. Louise Wetherbee Phelps and Janet Emig. Pittsburgh: U Pittsburgh P, 1995. 289-339.
Reichert, Pegeen. "A Contributing Listener and Other Composition Wives: Reading and Writing the Feminine Metaphors in Composition Studies." JAC 16.1 (1996): 141-57.
Reynolds, Nedra. "Interrupting Our Way to Agency: Feminist Cultural Studies and Composition." Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words. Ed. Susan C. Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. New York: Modern Language Assocation, 1998. 58-73.
Richardson, Elaine. "'To Protect and Serve': African American Female Literacies." College Composition and Communication 53.4 (June 2002): 675-704.
Ritchie, Joy, and Kathleen Boardman. "Feminism in Composition: Inclusion, Metonymy, and Disruption." College Composition and Communication 50.4 (June 1999): 585-607.
Rosenthal, Anne. "Knowing the Ropes, Women Professing." Pre/Text 9 (Fall/Winter 1988): 214-17.
Schell, Eileen E. "The Costs of Caring: 'Femininism' and Contingent Women Workers in Composition Studies." Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words. Ed. Susan C. Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. New York: Modern Language Assocation, 1998. 74-93.
Schell, Eileen E. "The Feminization of Composition: Questioning the Metaphors that Bind Women Teachers." Composition Studies/Freshman English News 25 (1997). Rpt. Feminism and Composition: A Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Gesa E. Kirsch, Faye Spencer Maor, Lance Massey, Lee Nickoson-Massey, and Mary P, Sheridan-Rabideau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. 552-557.
Stuckey, J. Elspeth. "The Feminization of Literacy." Composition and Resistance. Ed. C. Mark Hurlbert and Michael Blitz. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1991. 105-114.
Swearingen, C. Jan. "Women's Ways of Writing, or, Images, Self-Images, and Graven Images." College Composition and Communication 45.2 (May 1994): 251-7.
Worsham, Lynn. "Writing against Writing: The Predicament of Ecriture Feminine in Composition Studies." Harkin, Patricia, and John Schilb, eds. Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. New York: MLA, 1991.
COMPONENT THREE: Feminist histories of rhetoric. These are potentially useful for comparison with (and enriching of) feminist history of composition, but they should not be confused with feminist history of composition. These include some of the sources you've listed (Lunsford, Jarrett, Ballif), and also sources such as
Bizzell, Patricia. "Feminist Methods of Research in the History of Rhetoric: What Difference Do They Make?" Rhetoric Society Quarterly 30.4 (Fall 2000): 5-18.
COMPONENT FOUR: Transnational feminist methodology. You've already got this.
WHAT I THINK YOU SHOULD DO: Pick Component One or Component Two as your focus, and go with that. Component Three is an option—one that you probably don't have time for in your work for this course, but one that you might want to take up later. Once you've done the research on Component One or Component Two, apply Component Four.
Whatever you choose, try to preview your sources before you write your overview; if you can do that, you'll be well positioned to accomplish this project. You're starting off big, and you need to get it under control as speedily as possible. I'll really really be looking at your timetable in your overview!
Posted by: senioritis at February 12, 2005 06:38 PM