Melissa Miles

Graduation Semester and Year

2012

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in English

Department

English

First Advisor

Kevin Gustafson

Abstract

We must look at the changing sociological conditions that challenge many of the foundations of composition studies in order to develop the discipline. Although postfeminism is evident within academic and popular culture, so far postfeminism has been little addressed in composition studies. In the composition classroom, we can see evidence of postfeminism in the student resistance to overt and subvert expressions of feminist pedagogy and/or content. The essentialist and emancipatory elements of both feminism and composition studies not only are limiting pedagogically, but, in my view, also in themselves generate student resistance. I argue that, in order to mediate this resistance, we must be willing to question feminism's role in the composition classroom. I suggest theoretical and pedagogical ways we can move past student resistance by recognizing the postfeminist turn that has taken place in our larger social context, especially postfeminism's role in popular culture. I argue that we can envision a postfeminist composition studies, i.e. one that moves past the limits imposed by composition studies' intersections and parallels to feminist scholarship and activism.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Download

Share

COinS