Managing the Subject of Composition Studies

Dobrin, though, maintains that contending with "the complex systems in which the posthuman is located, endlessly bound in the fluidity and shiftiness of writing," requires a radical shift from "the individual as producer/originator of writing" (72-73) that now informs composition studies constrained by pedagogy. Contributors, who work in both small colleges and large universities, carefully consider what the focus and content of a major in writing should be, addressing in various chapters the roles of classical rhetoric (Beard; Delli Carpini and Zerbe); textual production (Baker and Henning); creative nonfiction (Martin); civic rhetoric (Moriarty and Giberson); and multimodal writing (Murray), providing evidence for what the curriculum might look like if it includes "specialized courses that draw on our vast disciplinary knowledge" rather than "a collection of old service courses, stitched together and called a major" (10).