Review by Choice Review
Faigley begins his book by arguing that much current composition theory--no matter how progressive it might appear--is inadequate because it cannot come to terms with the fragmented, urbanized, electronic culture in which contemporary writing students live. Then, as he draws on the postmodern theorizing of Lyotard and Baudrillard, Faigley goes on to assert that students in composition classrooms should no longer be treated as if they were static, autonomous, rational subjects. Such treatment, Faigley maintains, is part of an outmoded liberal-humanist pedagogy that denies the multiplicity of voices present in most classrooms, a pedagogy that too often asks students to ignore the realities of their own culture and get down to the business of learning to write personal experience narratives in an academically acceptable way. By relying on the postmodern rhetoric of anti-foundationalism as a foundation for his own theorizing, Faigley can easily be accused of putting himself in a very contradictory position. But his arguments, especially when coupled with examples of student writing from his computer-networked classroom, are quite convincing. An insightful, provocative book. Graduate; faculty.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
