Working Theory: Critical Composition Studies for Students and Teachers

by Judith Goleman

Overview

Goleman investigates the relationship between critical theory and composition pedagogy in extensive and methodical ways. The philosophical insights of Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, and Mikhail Bakhtin are transformed into methodologies for critical work in composition. The book rests on the premise that critical approaches to the relationship between language and ideology should not be the preserve of teachers alone, but should be seen as ways of writing and analyzing language that students can master. Critical theory provides students with an understanding of language and self, truth and knowledge that allows for intellectual insight and fluency among the discourses of their multileveled, often complex and conflict-ridden lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897893015
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/23/1995
Series:	Series in Language and Ideology
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

JUDITH GOLEMAN is Associate Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she directs the Freshman English Program and the Graduate Intern Program in composition.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Paulo Freire
Series Foreword by Donaldo Macedo
Acknowledgments
Working Theory: Introduction
Reading and Writing: Working the Dialectic since Marx
Toward Internally Persuasive Discourse Effects: Working Bakhtin's Theory of Language
Working the Relations between Academic Discourse and Subjectivity: A Cautionary Tale
How-to-Hope in Stanley Fish: Foundationalism Reworked
Epilogue: Working the "Specific Reality of Discourse"
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

An examination of what intellectual inquiry involves and why, for teachers, for students, and for the relationship between them. Goleman (English, U. Mass, Boston) borrows from Althusser to examine what it is to read; explores Bahktin's theory of language to evaluate the effects of authoritative language relations on students' reading and writing practices; and provides an in- depth discussion of an essay by Stanley Fish. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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