Composition As a Human Science: Contributions to the Self-understanding of a Discipline - Hardcover

Phelps, Louise Wetherbee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195042697 ISBN 13: 9780195042696

Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr, 1988

Synopsis

Although composition has in the last twenty years established itself intellectually and institutionally as a field of inquiry with its own distinctive subject matter, it remains in a state of anarchy regarding fundamental premises and values. This groundbreaking collection of essays is one of the first works to reflect directly and systematically on the conceptual and ethical basis for composition studies as a new discipline of written language. Phelps articulates a philosophy of composition generous enough to accommodate all the strands of current work without being overly eclectic--an open framework subject to modification and addition as the field develops. She draws on wide reading in the humanities and social sciences--including cognitive science, linguistics, literary theory, education, philosophy, hermeneutics, rhetoric, and psychology--to define the contribution and place of composition studies within the larger intellectual and cultural community. The book will therefore interest theorists and scholars in a wide variety of fields. Table of Contents: Preface:Theory is Autobiography. Part I: Constructing an Ecology of Composition. The Cultural Ground. The Idea of Composition as a Discipline. Part II:The Process of Reconstruction: Possibilities for a Post-Critical Rhetoric. Imagining a Psychology of Composition. Literacy and the Limits of the Natural Attitude. The Dance of Discourse. Dialectics of Coherence. The Third Way: Ricoeur and the Problem of Method of Method. Part III: Application: Toward a Human Science Disciplined by Practical Wisdom. Bibliography.

About this title

Review

Every serious scholar in the field of composition must read Louise Phelp's Composition as a Human Science. The book sets out to do for composition what Chomsky's Syntactic Structures did for linguistics, Derrida's Of Grammatology did for philosophy, and Millett's Sexual Politics did for feminism. (College Composition and Communication)

From the Back Cover

Drawing on wide reading in cognitive science, linguistics, literary theory, education, philosophy, hermeneutics, rhetoric, and psychology, Phelps arrives at a new conception of composition as a discipline linked to many sciences and humanities rather than merely a branch of literary studies; and further defines its link to the broader cultural themes of rhetoric, writing, praxis, and context.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195042697
• ISBN 13: 9780195042696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288