Women-Writing-Teaching

Rating:
Summary: Rediscovering Voice: A Review of Women / Writing/ Teaching
Review: In the late 1980's and early 1990's, the field of feminist composition began to expand rapidly as women writers and teachers explored the possibilities of autobiographical literary criticism and the relationship between feminist theory, gender studies, and writing pedagogy. Numerous books appeared concerning these subjects including The Intimate Critique: Autobiographical Literary Criticism, a collaborative work by Diane P. Freedman, Olivia Frey, and Frances Murphey Zauhar; Cynthia L. Caywood's and Gillian R. Overing's Teaching Writing: Pedagogy, Gender, and Equity; and Feminine Principles and Women's Experience in American Composition and Rhetoric, written by Janet Emig and Louise Wetherbee Phelps. In reaction and response to the issues raised in these works, Women / Writing / Teaching, using a new approach-that of autobiographical writing-enters the conversation concerning feminist pedagogical practices. This style of delivery, as editor Jan Zlotnik Schmidt, Professor of English and Coordinator of the Composition Program at the State University of New York, New Paltz, indicates "prompts us to lay 'claim' to our lives (to use Patricia Hampi's term); to connect past and present; to reflect on and to re-envision our experiences; and to authorize and to shape our complex identities as feminist writing teachers" (3).

As a woman, a writer, a first year composition teacher, and a feminist, I approached Women / Writing / Teaching with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Used to the sterile, proscribed language of English academia, I expected, from both the book's title and its classification under feminist theory, to delve into a dense, untenable mass of postmodern jargon; however, I discovered a wonderfully rich, full-bodied collection of autobiographical essays that explore the complexity of women's lives and their multiple identities as wives, daughters, mothers, writers, women, teachers, and professionals as well as their development of authority. The poignant and at times heart-wrenching personal narratives, written by some of the most prominent researchers and authors within the field of feminist composition studies (such as Lynn Z. Bloom, Ann V. Dean, Min-Zhan Lu, Adrienne Rich, and Nancy Sommers), forced me to examine not only my own various roles but also my own sense of voice. Coached (and coerced) by the academy to write according to a particular standard of style and delivery, I was first shocked and then liberated by the use of the personal "I"; however, upon reflection, I realized, with some measure of sorrow, that I had no idea how to even begin to express my own sense of self, which effectively had been erased from my writing. As I continued to read the essays in Women / Writing / Teaching and simultaneously to explore my own feelings toward the construction of my multiple identities and their influence on my writing and teaching styles, I found a new sense of purpose, a desire to emulate the vision of feminist composition pedagogy illustrated within these narratives.

Heralded by Marilyn Shapiro for its expression of "true love and excitement about the teaching of writing," Women / Writing / Teaching explores the ways in which women teachers forge connections between themselves and their students, between the private and public spheres, between the personal and academic, between the classroom and the world outside, and finally among past, present, and future. In addition, this collection of essays addresses numerous issues of growing concern among female scholars in the field of composition studies and includes a comprehensive bibliography dedicated to the study of feminist composition and autobiographical writing. In addition, despite the absence of an index, the text, divided into three sections entitled "Silence and Words, "Authority and Authorship," and "Visions of Embodied Teaching," respectively, is accessible and easy to navigate.

Directed toward women writers and instructors of writing, the collection presents a feminist vision of writing instruction that incorporates the past and present experiences of female writers and encourages the inclusion of their multiple identities as women, as teachers, as writers, as members of specific classes and ethnicities, and as participants in particular cultures. By crossing the boundaries of these identities and by intertwining the elements of writing and teaching, the authors in this anthology introduce a pedagogical approach that recognizes, as Schmidt indicates in the introduction to the work, the "need to merge autobiographical reflection, contemplations of the writing life, and critical examination of our pedagogical practices in order to more fully comprehend our complex lives and struggles as feminist writing teachers in the academy" (3). These essays advocate a breaking of the silence, the emergence from decades of female oppression in an effort to establish women as figures of power and authority within the professions of writing and writing instruction.

The moving self explorations, the incredible stories of suppression and subjugation, the empowering narratives of female success and authoritative identity development interwoven with humor, grief, pain, and exhilaration illuminate the essential power that women have to create and re-create themselves within their writing and their classrooms. In addition, these personal narratives illustrate the ways in which the diversity of individuals and their experiences can enhance the writing process and bring new vision to their students. Thus, the power of Women / Writing / Teaching lies in its ability to stimulate personal exploration and growth, an experience that no female writer or teacher should miss.