Pedagogy and power relations in English studies ; insights from literary and rhetorical theory

In this dissertation, I examine, against a history of current literature and composition teaching, the question of teacher authority versus student freedom in four different sites: the writing conference, especially as it takes place in writing centers; the“open” class discussion, particularly the issue of whether it encourages dissent or defusesit; non authoritarian strategies such as teaching in a circle and all they signify about classroom hierarchies; and the use of networked computers in the reading and writing course, which has been both endorsed and excoriated by leaders in the discipline.Chapter two draws heavily on recent social constructionist theories of composition to interrogate tutoring practices, while chapter three employs critiques of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism in questioning models of classroom conversation. Chapter three problematizes, through applications of Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault, what may be seen as utopian techniques rooted in Paulo Freire and his followers. Finally, chapter five uses the theorists of the preceding three chapters, and touches briefly upon JacquesDerrida, in the analysis of online class interactions. Each site reveals the paradox thatEnglish pedagogies that at first seem liberatory for both teachers and students often reveal themselves, under theoretical and empirical pressure, as conservative at best and oppressive at worst. In each chapter and an afterword, I propose a demystifying pedagogy for English studies that foregrounds asymmetrical power relations between teachers and students and allows instructors to proclaim their vision of social justice.