notes on academic agonism from Mike Rose
I have one more thing to say about the kind of critique I tried to fashion [in Possible Lives]. Academic training is agonistic; graduate study instills in us the penchant for critique, and the disciplinary tools to do it. More generally, Western intellectual life is energized by attack and counterattack — just read the letters section of a magazine like The Nation. It is less common — and perhaps more difficult — to find shared concerns or seek collaborative resolution. (303)
Rose, Mike. An Open Language: Selected Writing on Literacy, Learning, and Opportunity. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.
found via: Lindquist, Julie. “Review: Looking Back at the Road Ahead.” College English 70.1 (Sept. 2007): 70-78.
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If you’re interested, Walter Ong’s book Fighting For Life is all about the agonistic nature of Western intellectual life.
Yes. I read part (maybe even most) of it about a year and a half ago. It really made me think — and was probably one of the reasons I became more interested in public debates and agonism and irenicism in discourse.
Thanks for reminding me, though. I’d probably return to it if I wasn’t so busy right now.
Bohm, David. _On Dialogue_. 2004. London: Routledge.