The Function of Theory in Composition Studies - Hardcover

"Given the huge wave of theory that flowed through composition and rhetoric beginning in the 1980s, it is important now to take stock of what the changes wrought by theory will have meant for us. Sanchez shows us how our conceptions of knowledge and theory have in some senses not come along as far as we might have thought, and thereby opens up a space for thinking anew about these issues beyond interpretive/hermeneutic frameworks that are still predominant. He makes an interesting, innovative argument, one that I think will be good for the field to hear. And, he helps supply further rationale for the centrality of writing in university curriculums, if not life in general."

How can theory improve our knowledge of writing? Raúl Sánchez answers this question by examining dominant theoretical trends in composition studies over the last fifteen years, citing their common origins in a narrow, representational metatheory of writing. He argues that this adherence actually leads the field away from its objects of study: writing and the writing subject. Through this extended critique, he elaborates an alternative metatheory, one that restores writing to the conceptual center of composition studies by emphasizing its generative--rather than its representational--characteristics, particularly in increasingly networked and textualized cultures.