Mystory of Ungrounded Virtual Hip-Hop Refugee Punk Rock Urbanism
I was trying to whip up some ideas for articles or research or something. I failed, but I started thinking about something else in the process. I asked myself: Looking at the work of the scholars who’ve made an impact on you lately (that is, the scholars whose work made me interested in moving from lit/cult studies to rhet/comp), what does their work have in common?
An interest in metaphor is the answer I arrived at. Consider the way these shcolars play with metaphor:
- Geoff Sirc: Virtual Urbanism vs. the Virtual Academic. Writing as space for exploration and wandering.
- Geoff Sirc again: Box-Logic. Writing as space for collection of curios and artifacts.
- Cynthia Haynes: Ungrounded, homeless refugees. The writer as someone unsettled and unresolved; the essay as the search for a place to stand.
- Jeff Rice: Hip-hop pedagogy. Writing as juxtaposition, sampling, reorchestration and mash-up.
- Greg Ulmer: the Mystory. Writing as site for personal exploration and revelation, as method of discovering patterns in one’s life.
While I don’t think any of these scholars thinks of writing only in these terms, this little thought-experiment made me ask: What’s My Metaphor?
I’m not sure I have one yet (not that I need to), but it’s something to think about. . .maybe even as assignment idea in the future. As the previous post mentions, I am drawn to the idea of writing-as-web–but that’s not really my metaphor, just one that I find compelling. What I do like about the idea of the web is how it accomodates the models of the above scholars in various ways. (Well, maybe not Haynes, but the others certainly.)
So, reader. . .what your metaphor?
A couple of ideas here:
What’s My Metaphor is actually a nice name for an assignment! I’ve done some similar things I’d be willing to share w/you (or may already have - did I discuss my Malcolm X assignment yet?).
Also, you might be interested in the book More Than Cool Reason - whose tie to my work on cool does not exist. But, it is a book about metaphor and by two folks who are well known for their work in metaphor and literacy, Lakoff and Turner.
I can also imagine a possible publication in here somewhere regarding writing and technology - as informed by a very traditional literacy tool, metaphor.
Comment by jeff — 26 January, 2007 @ 2:00 pm