THE CIRCLE OF DISCOURSE: A THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY FOR COMPOSITION
Abstract
In recent years, people in composition and rhetoric have talked about shifting paradigms, emerging paradigms, the possibility for new paradigms. This study declares that composition and rhetoric have entered a new paradigm and presents a theory and philosophy for composition which is grounded in the basic features of the new paradigm. Central to this new paradigm is the shift in focus from product to process in composition studies. Equally important, however, are the reinvention of invention, the attention given to revision, renewed interest in the speaker-subject-audience relationship, a focus on purpose in discourse, and discussions on the nature of language. The prior work of Ann Berthoff, John Dewey, Lester Faigley and Stephen Witte, Hans-George Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, James Kinneavy, Donald Murray, Sondra Perl, and Calvin Schrag guides the theory, the circle of discourse, which is presented. Supporting the circle of discourse are the conceptual frameworks of product-in-process and the composition pyramid, which explain the writing activity as one which is both linear and recursive and contextualize the writing experience. Central to the theory presented is the belief that all discourse is expressive and the belief that composing is an hermeneutical act. The philosophy which supports the theory for composition is based upon an understanding of hermeneutics and the nature of experience and expression. The model presented is based upon a dismantling and reconstructing of the communication triangle, moving theory out of an a-rhetorical, positivistic view of reality and into a contextual, hermeneutical view. In addressing composition, both theoretically and philosophically, this study does so with the awareness that the lived experience of the human person is always stronger than any theory about it.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Language
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