Moving Beyond Academic Discourse: Chapter 5
· the goal of public turn compositionists is to change the world (p116)
· compositionists may become “public intellectuals”?
o Stanley Fish says public intellectualism is not possible in academia
o Bérubé, Nelson, Robbins recognize the political functions of academic work (p117-118)
o Cushman and Dobrin put forth investigations of the role of compositionists in changing academia and society
o Fish says only those with the attention of a large portion of the population can be public intellectuals
§ public intellectuals must be concerned with a subject that is a matter of public concern and have the public’s attention
§ (by this definition there are no public intellectuals today)
o Intellectuals do have options, if they go beyond traditional definition (p119)
o Fish and Habermas
§ Habermas examines the location of public discourses in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
§ Fish examines the degree to which intellectuals enter and influence public discourse in Professional Correctness
§ Habermas and Fish suggest that it is difficult to elicit change through public discourse
§ Habermas says the “public sphere” doesn’t exist anymore
§ Fish says the public no longer looks to academics for general knowledge
§ Habermas and Fish say that public discourse is only worthwhile if it reaches lots of people who can act, who are assorted, i.e. “the general public”
§ Habermas and Fish say there is/should be one “public” (p120)
o We should move beyond that definition of public
o Nancy Fraser (counter to Habermas and Fish) says having only one site for discourse keeps marginalized groups subordinate (p122)
§ (Intellectuals tend to speak of and for marginalized viewpoints)
§ subordinated groups should become part of alternate sites of public discourse, what Fraser calls “subaltern counterpublics”
· Subaltern counterpublics are
o places for oppressed to retreat and heal
o training ground for disruptive discourse/ action
o Intellectuals can take part
§ but it may not be a sweeping change
o Habermas and Fish don’t recognize “public” is ambiguous, leaving those in power to decide what is in the public interest
§ Fraser says “public” and “private” are cultural classifications and rhetorical labels
· as such they reinforce boundaries and disadvantage subordinate groups
o Public Intellectuals can address particular groups (p125)
o Inequalities taint public intellectuals’ deliberation (p126)
§ Compositionists should recognize this (p127)
o Classroom work must help students develop skills to be successful in and out of the university
§ “skills” are 1) write effectively 2) make well-informed decisions
§ the changes will be to make a few students more critical of themselves and their world
o Few agree that scholarship in composition studies is a place to proactive activism
§ i.e. compositionists study the internal rhetoric of discourse communities
§ resolution and action are nearly impossible when different discourse communities can’t communicate
o Noam Chomsky, Paulo Freire, and Michel Foucault worked inside and outside academia—in their personal and private lives
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