This dissertation analyzes concepts of the writing self in works about writing by professional creative writers (writers, poets, and essayists). Through a rhetorical analysis of these texts, I observe that writers view the writing self as a complex structure that is fully conscious as a rhetorical agent, an embodied self that interacts with the world and actively chooses linguistic representations of that experience, and maintains a concept of self that is subject to influences which the writers do not fully understand (such as inspiration and insight). The discourse used by writers to describe their writing processes challenges recent critiques of expressionism and the model of social construction that pervades contemporary composition scholarship. Chapter II examines Virginia Woolf's use of the central metaphor for invention in A Room of One's Own, a river, which sharply calls into question a unified view of the self which is central to critiques of expressivism by composition scholars. Woolf's concept of invention requires a negation of the self and harmony with nature (widely conceived as the entire world, including texts). Chapter III, an analysis of two writing memoirs by contemporary professional creative writers, Annie Dillard's The Writing Life and Donald Hall's Life Work, finds that Dillard and Hall use metaphors that establish freedom (rhetorical agency) and bodily presence as primary characteristics of their writing processes. Chapter IV, an analysis of two collections of essays about writing by professional creative writers, argues that the writers' use of metaphors of inspiration and instrumental metaphors creates a concept of the writing self that maintains a sense of writerly control (rhetorical agency) alternating with a sense of a diminished control; ultimately, the two concepts coexist in the minds of the writers. Chapter V proposes that the rhetorical situation of the contemporary composition classroom affects students' creativity adversely. The chapter also suggests further analyses of writing memoirs can provide new ways of understanding writing processes (as opposed to one writing process model) and therefore contribute substantially to composition scholarship and pedagogy.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-96) Also available in print.

This dissertation scrutinizes expressivist theories of first-person privilege with the aim of arriving at, first, a handful of suggestions about how a `best version' of expressivism about privilege will have to look, and second, a critical understanding of what such an approach's strengths and weaknesses will be. Roughly, expressivist approaches to the problem of privilege are characterized, first, by their emphasis on the likenesses between privileged mental state self-ascriptions and natural behavioral expressions of mentality, and second, by their insistence that an acknowledgment of these likenesses is required in order properly to understand the characteristically singular privilege with which one speaks of one's own mental states. The dissertation proceeds in five chapters whose individual tasks are as follows: The first chapter sets out the definition of the phenomena of "first-person privilege" in use throughout the dissertation and defends the claim that those phenomena are indeed real and so the philosophical problem of accounting for them is indeed serious. However, there is no presupposition made against the possibility of an expressivist account of the phenomena of first-person privilege. The second chapter sets out the basic motivations informing expressivist approaches to the problem of first-person privilege. Four immediate and significant questions for the expressivist approach are set out. The chapter also considers one `simple' way of responding to those questions and set outs the most pressing difficulties for a `simple expressivism'. The third chapter sets out my view of Wittgenstein as a methodically non-theorizing philosopher, criticizes rival views and, finally, sets out my view of the Wittgensteinian responses to the four questions set out in chapter two, given my view of him as a philosophical non-theorizer. Many of the later suggestions about a `best version' of expressivism draw directly on my best understanding of Wittgenstein's own approach to the problem of first-person privilege. The fourth chapter sets out David Finkelstein's, Peter Hacker's and Dorit Bar-On's responses to the quartet of questions for expressivists about first-person privilege, while flagging a number concerns for each author's approach. The final chapter condenses and reviews the concerns already raised for the expressivist approaches already canvassed and makes a number of suggestions about the most viable expressivist options for dealing with them. With that in place, the last chapter proceeds to comment on the overall plausibility of the sketch of a `best-version' of expressivism that emerges. Also, concerns to do with the relationship between expressivism about first-person privilege, epistemological foundationalism, content externalism and the mind-body problem are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

While the genre of travel writing has been popular with authors and audiences over centuries, developments in new media, social media and public use genres have caused an adaptation of the genre in the digital space. This genre, as it exists, claims two antecedents: first, the traditional and literary version of the genre and second, the blogs that emerged and were popularized in the late twentieth century. In exploring the genre of digital travel writing, hundreds of internet publications were read, reviewed and cataloged. Of these, many began to demonstrate the criteria which would be considered prototypical for the genre. Any publication in the genre demonstrates, in various ways and to varying degrees, the following characteristics: frequent updates, multiple platform-use and multimedia inclusions, discursive constructions of identity, engagement with economies, and entanglements with the ethical concerns proper to both the genre and its situated ideology. In addition to stabilizing this vast archive of open source media as a perceptible genre, this dissertation hints at ways that the literate practices of these authors speaks to a nuanced appreciation of literacy and one that reverses the classical binary privileging reading over writing. Further, some suggestions are made for using open source and new media genres productively in writing classrooms. / English

This work discusses a way of thinking the normative practices as a phenomenon better understood through a pragmatic account of social practices. We claim that an appropriate approach to normativity should accept the presence, in the normative creature, of natural capacities intrinsically related to norm-governed activities, especially what we call a normative attitude. Thus, we present a discussion on the rule-based account of normativity understood as a sort of intersubjective practice grounded in practical skills and learning processes as well. We also indicate why the pragmatic model appropriately fits with a connectionist model of cognition. Finally, we argue that normative practices should be understood primarily in terms of internal patterns, functionally defined, instituted as nonexplicit, non-conscious individual processes. The consequence is a practical, inferentialist, connectionist, and implicit approach to the normativity. / Este trabalho discute um modo de pensar as práticas normativas como um fenômeno melhor entendido através de uma explicação pragmática das praticas sociais. Afirmamos que uma estratégia apropriada para entender a normatividade deve aceitar a presença, nas criaturas normativas, de capacidades naturais intrinsecamente relacionadas às atividades governadas por normas, especialmente o que chamamos de atitudes normativas. Assim, apresentamos uma discussão de uma abordagem da normatividade baseada em regras entendidas como um tipo de prática intersubjetiva fundada em habilidades práticas e, também, em processes de aprendizado. Indicamos, então, por que um modelo pragmático se adéqua apropriadamente a um modelo conexionista de cognição. Finalmente, argumentamos que as práticas normativas devem ser entendidas primeiramente em termos de padrões internos, funcionalmente definidos, instituídos como processos individuais não explícitos e não conscientes. A consequência é uma explicação prática, inferencialista, conexionista e implícita da normatividade.

This thesis offers a comparison, which rarely, if ever, has been made between Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylors account of the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder on the relationship of language, culture and nationality. It argues that Berlin misrepresents Herders ideas in emphasizing the extent to which differences in language and culture necessarily result in ethnic and national conflicts between incompatible cultural worldviews, while Taylor does correctly understand that Herder sees no reason for why such conflict between cultural entities should be inevitable either within a single state or between states. The thesis concludes by offering reasons for why Herder, properly understood, allows us to be optimistic about the future of both intrastate and interstate relationships among diverse cultural groups.

This thesis offers a comparison, which rarely, if ever, has been made between Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylors account of the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder on the relationship of language, culture and nationality. It argues that Berlin misrepresents Herders ideas in emphasizing the extent to which differences in language and culture necessarily result in ethnic and national conflicts between incompatible cultural worldviews, while Taylor does correctly understand that Herder sees no reason for why such conflict between cultural entities should be inevitable either within a single state or between states. The thesis concludes by offering reasons for why Herder, properly understood, allows us to be optimistic about the future of both intrastate and interstate relationships among diverse cultural groups.

Thesis (PhD.) --University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in a print form.