Composition: History & Theory: 2000 - 2009
Taking Dictation: The Emergence of Writing Programs and the Cultural Contradictions of Composition Teaching
Description
Strickland, Donna. “Taking Dictation: The Emergence of Writing Programs and the Cultural Contradictions of..” College English 63.4 (2001): 457. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.
Noting the intrinsic division between conceptual and manual work brought about by industrial and technological change in the early twentieth century, Strickland focuses early in this article on how this division is construed and reinforced by capitalist and corporate forces along gender and racial boundaries. Such forces are also applicable within English departments which began to be structured by corporate models of efficiency. The recognition of this type of structuring reveals “two simultaneous and mutually reinforcing phenomena: first, the material conditions that have given rise to hierarchically arranged writing programs, and, second, the attendant cultural values that have made possible the feminization of as well as the racialization of composition teaching” (460). Strickland further hopes to demonstrate how writing programs emerged because of the “division of labor,” that this division operated in terms similar to that of conceptual/mechanical functioning in corporate environments, and that such “mechanical” operations were racially and gender-specifically inscribed upon white women (460). Writing programs, according to Strickland, became central control mechanisms for “surveillance and assessment” in the academic institution (461). In the following historical analysis, Strickland contextualizes the division of labor in the English department, the “mechanization of writing,” and finally, how mechanical correctness might be feminized and racialized. The evidence for these claims rests among other arguments, on the historical marginalization of the position of the composition teacher in terms of salary and work conditions. In her final comments, Strickland calls on others in the field to attempt to “undo some of [the] complex articulations” brought about by ideological assumptions concerning the division of thought and form, concept and mechanic. “To struggle over these destructive codings,” urges Strickland, “requires participation in a larger struggle, one that requires solidarity not simply among all composition teachers, but solidarity among all whose lives depend upon lasting social change” (477).
Author
Matthew Vetter
Date of Upload
4/19/11