I’m re-reading Sirc’s book (well, part of it; I haven’t finished it yet), and when I read again that Sirc compares the Modernist classroom to a museum (2), I was reminded of what Gloria Anzaldúa writes in Borderlands: La Frontera. Here is what I wrote in a previous post, followed by some more thoughts after re-reading this by Sirc.
Anzaldúa contrasts the view of art by the West with the view of art by tribal cultures. Western art “is dedicated to the validation of itself…is individual (not communal),“ whereas tribal art is “treated not just as objects, but also as persons“ (90). Western ethnocentrism often takes the power away from tribal art by putting it in a museum, making the art “a conquered thing, a dead ‘thing’ separated from nature and, therefore, its power“ (90). Anzaldúa still has hope for art, though: “Let us hope that the left hand, that of darkness, of femaleness, of ‘primitiveness,’ can divert the indifferent, right-handed, ‘rational’ suicidal drive that, unchecked, could blow us into acid rain in a fraction of a millisecond“ (91).
Can we view “academic” writing as the same as other Western arts? Devoted to the validation of itself? I agree with Sirc that the classroom should not be a museum because museums are not about using and power, but about removing power and viewing. Sirc writes of teh museum metaphor: “students are ‘invited’ in to sample the best that has been thought and expressed in our language and maybe even, like the art students we see poised in galleries with their sketchbooks and charcoals, to learn to reproduce the master’s craft” (2). There is a certain degree of “Look how well MLK writes. Now, try that” in the classroom. Even the “minorities” chosen are largely ones that agree with dominant ideology (or at least the academic version of it) and write in the standard academic style. Where is “the multicultural reader featuring a Tupac retrospective” (Sirc 3)? Why is Maya Angelou so revered as an African American writer? Yes, she’s great, but why her over another African American who write less Standard English-y? (I use MLK and Angelou because they are in our Writing 121 reader).
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands: La Frontera. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999.
Sirc, Geoffrey. English Composition as a Happening. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, 2002.
Your thoughts about composition are compelling. In OSU’s WR 121 program we do emphasize collaboration to some degree (tribal?) but of course the work is graded individually and students do compete (Western individualism) for grades. The group loyalty tribal feeling might be more representative in working class students – who try not to excel so as to not be ostracized? As for the minority authors, the old reader for OSU did also include Malcolm X, who probably doesn’t consider himself establishment, and of course Anzaldua herself, clearly not allied with the elite. Why no Tupac? Well,the goal of first year composition is to teach academic writing. So Tupac wouldn’t be a good role model for that. But because we also work with public rhetoric, public intellectuals, (even though our program is not designed as a socially conscious theme) then we could read Tupac for the issues raised. Counter Culture Readers exist (Pearson Longman) with selections from Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, Timothy Leary, etc, Robert Pirsig. I guess I need to read Sirc!