College Composition and Communication Feb 2014

Flattening Effects: Composition’s Multicultural Imperative and the Problem of Narrative Coherence

Jonathan Alexander ; Jacqueline Rhodes California State University System

Abstract

This essay argues that multiculturalism-inflected composition classrooms often “flatten” or efface radical alterities with which students—and teachers—should be encouraged to grapple. The authors demonstrate some of the limitations of such pedagogies, offer examples of provocative texts that celebrate difference—not identity—as a powerful critical and compositional tool for exploring subjectivity and justice, and call for a shift toward acknowledging our potential incommensurability and unknowability as a fruitful way to engage issues of social justice.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2014-02-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc201424570
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy race and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Bordelon (2022)
    “Motherhood, Saliency, and Flattening Effects: World War I and the ‘The Greates…
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Rylander et al. (2020)
    Embracing the “Always-Already”: Toward Queer Assemblages for Writing Across the…
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Wang (2019)
    Relive Differences through a Material Flashback
    College Composition and Communication
  4. Owens (2018)
    In Lak’ech, The Chicano Clap, and Fear: A Partial Rhetorical Autopsy of Tucson’…
    College English
  5. Ingraham (2017)
    The Scope and Autonomy of Personal Narrative
    Written Communication
Show all 7 →
  1. Hsu (2016)
    A Single Life Reinvented: Personal Writing as the Negotiation of Identity in Ri…
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Boyle et al. (2016)
    A Version of Access
    Technical Communication Quarterly

References (0)

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CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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