Composition: History & Theory: 1990 - 1999
Royster, Jacqueline Jones and Jean C. Williams. “History in the Spaces Left...”
Description
In “History in the Spaces Left: African American Presence and Narratives of Composition Studies” Jacqueline Jones Royster and Jean C. Williams argue that the act of reading “primary” histories—or composing what could become future landmark histories of composition studies—involves “social, political, and cultural consequences” for the field and its scholars, especially when traditionally marginalized groups are mis- or un- represented by an individual author’s ideological lens (414). Instead of overemphasizing the shortcomings of past or contemporary historians such as Albert Kitzhaber, James Berlin, or Susan Miller, Royster and Williams argue that it is the duty of current scholars to approach these works from a critical perspective that acknowledges the roles these historical visions play in “knowledge making, policymaking, and day to day operations” (415). In the remainder of the essay, Royster and Williams present research that fills some gaps in these histories in order to show how a reliance on these narratives as primary, and thereby definitive, causes some scholars to overlook areas of research that enrich composition’s history as a diverse discipline. For example, how the student as a generalized term allows for destructive metaphors linking African American students to basic writers is presented as one counter mythology (434) of how seminal works like Mina Shaughnessy’s Errors and Expectations can be used to propagate inaccurate representations of how the other (or othered) student has entered mainstream composition studies, while a conflicting history presents Open Admissions as one blip on the educational radar of African Americans in the United States. In this way, the article models the kind of approach the authors would like to see in regards to reconstructing histories of African Americans in the academy by beginning their research in the 19th (as opposed to the 20th century), creating a new definition of student as a non-basic writer, and recording the contributions of African American professionals in composition studies (435).
Author
rebecca butorac
Date of Upload
11/3/2009