Composition: History & Theory: 2000 - 2009
Dobrin, Sidney and Christian Weisser. “Breking Ground in Ecocomposition: Exploring Relationships...” (2000)
Description
Dobrin and Weisser present a short history of the place of ecology in composition classrooms and outline two predominant approaches to ecocomposition pedagogy in order to argue not only for a widespread embrace of ecocomposition methodologies, but for an emphasis on what they label the “discursive ecology approach” while still utilizing elements of the “ecological literacy approach.” Though their pedagogical suggestions concretize some of the theory they have laid out and in that way are useful, the historical overview of the evolution of ecocomposition and its relation to and separation from ecocriticism is what I find most interesting. In describing how the field of ecocomposition has been “breaking ground,” they provide a firm grounding for those of use less familiar with this branch of composition theory. They suggest that the ecological perspective can take compositionists beyond just an awareness of the social nature of writing; “that in addition to the ideological, cultural contexts in which we have situated writers in recent times, we look to physical environments, textual relationships, and the locations from which language and discourse arises” (282-3).They ultimately argue that unlike ecocriticism, which uses ecology as a lens for interpretation, ecocomposition must focus primarily on production of texts, and on the ecologies of writing that enable that production.
Author
Lydia McDermott
Date of Upload
11/3/09