1st Post of the New Year

I swear, this year I'm going to get better at posting. Likely I'll have to post for Anne's class again, so that will keep me going. But for now, a brief post about my dissertation ideas, since I have not yet had an opportunity to write them out.

At this point, I'm thinking about doing something with personal writing (specifically anecdotes), critical theory (postmodernism/parody), and rhetorical invention. Sounds weird, I know. Likely there will also be heuretics involved, which is Gregory Ulmer's term for how invention works. I know that I want to explore the possibilities of this, but in which ways, I am yet unsure. Also, experimental writing will possibly fit in here, because I see it as linked to new ways of invention.

Linda Hutcheon's A Theory of Parody has been an influential work for me, especially during my Master's degree. I can't remember why I picked it up; I know I did so during the summer of 2006. Since then, I've read it a few times, and included it in my MA thesis. It's an interesting look at 20th century art and literature. Basically, Hutcheon creates a new definition of parody -- based on examples from 20th century art and literature -- that casts it as "repetition with a critical, ironic distance." In other words, an artist consciously repeats elements of a work to critique it and/or critique socio-cultural forces that created it. Granted, Hutcheon does not, to my knowledge, pay much attention to present receptions of these works, though I think she recognizes that works cannot be divorced from either their initial circumstances or present ones.

So how does this relate to any of my proposed ideas? Well, based on my rather limited reading, it seems that imitation (in the rhetorical sense) can operate on a similar plane. I might even argue that what many composition scholars are asking their students to do is parody works. If this is the case, then Hutcheon's conception of parody can also be figured as part of the writing classroom. I'm also thinking that this form of imitation might be linked to invention -- or, at least, used as a means for invention. As for anecdotes and experimental writing, your guess is as good as mine.

In other academic news, I'm going to two conferences this semester: NeMLA and MCLLM. At NeMLA, I'm presenting a paper on personal writing and heuretics; at MCLLM, I'll be presenting a study of Lev Vygotsky's Thought and Language in relation to student writing. Stay tuned for posts with abstracts!