Composition and the search for self‐awareness

Abstract

Composition studies saw several cogent criticisms of expressivism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some scholars assume that those criticisms discredited expressivism in composition studies, ending the focus on assignments that ask students to write personal, supposedly introspective papers that were believed to lead to self‐awareness and self‐identity. Even so, recent research suggests that the expressivist pedagogical orientation is still widely used in writing classes across the US. Joshua Hilst (2012) sought to rehabilitate expressivism by drawing on the work of philosopher Giles Deleuze, arguing that neo‐expressivism provides a palliative to those criticisms. In this regard, Hilst’s analysis follows the current trend of applying Deleuze’s philosophy to a variety of fields. The present analysis therefore consists of two parts, both with pedagogical implications. First, it examines Deleuze’s work and illustrates how his neo‐expressivism and views on writing are incongruent with the expressivism applied in composition studies. Second, it examines the psychological research on introspection and self‐ awareness that has demonstrated with considerable consistency the opacity of mental processes and the difficulty associated with gaining any sense of self‐awareness or self‐identity.