Composition vs. Literature: A Response to Bishop's "Against the Odds in Compostion and Rhetoric"

Being new to the field of Composition Theory, I didn't realize there was such a disconnect between this field and that of Literary Theory. It makes perfect sense, of course, and, in some ways, I think I've been, unknowingly, dealing with the issue from my first semester as an English undergraduate.

I began pulling away from my literary roots - migrating toward other fields (e.g. Creative Writing, Mass Communications, Public Administration) - because I became frustrated with what felt like an endlessly broad and intimidating number of both literary and critical texts. I was not at all like Bishop's sparrow, "[dashing] into and out of promised warmth" (325), but more like a plodding sloth. I realized, somewhere during my required LitCrit class, that critical theory was an important dialogue being carried on by great thinkers whose ethos was nearly unimpeachable. How on earth was I supposed to enter into such a conversation? Where could I even start to become relevant? Writing, on the other hand, felt personal, intimate, yet powerful and is where I understand Bishop's "Declaration of Independence:" "I have long been one who preferred to be among others only if I can choose my own way" (326).

Composition, at first glance, appears to be a completely different form of dialogue, one in which authority can be granted by simply living, and have knowledge of the personal experience gained by living. Teaching this sort of writing, helping others to enter expertly into this conversation, is a worthy occupation, and, looking a little deeper, the teacher finds each new voice adds something different to the mix, a new perspective. When we look a little deeper, these are the the bridges that allow us to move from Beethoven to The Blues to The Beatles, from the Brontes and Jane Austin to Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Amy Tan, from Romance to Modernism, and from Formalism to Marxist to Gendered theory. Who wouldn't want to be the teacher who discovers such a new voice?

I'm not certain about Bishop's concern about attendance at conferences - probably because I'm so new to this field - but I do resonate with her search for "composing communities" and "configuring spaces... that require new metaphors" (331). New voices entering into this long-standing, on-going dialogue will always need a new language with which to differentiate them from the voices of the past and a community to nurture their uniqueness.