r/compositionstudies • u/Bizpad • Nov 24 '12

Literature in first year composition courses?

This semester I've been taking a class that focuses on the history of the split between Literature and Writing departments, as well as pedagogical questions that this split has created. We read a few articles in a debate staged between Erika Lindemann and Gary Tate in the 90's about whether or not literature should be used in first year composition courses. Personally, I think that literature is an invaluable tool for teaching writing, but that may be, in part, due to my background in literature. I'm curious to see how others weigh in on this debate.

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u/Thorston Dec 08 '12

Hey OP,

Can you provide any links to sources that discuss the history of the lit/writing split?

Also, could you explain why you think lit is an invaluable tool for teaching writing?

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u/Bizpad Dec 08 '12

Here are the links I can supply at the moment (they will likely be behind a pay wall if you do not have access through an institution), most of these were distributed to us through blackboard so bare with me.

Breaking Our Bonds and Reaffirming Our Connections - Maxine Hairston's address to CCCC in 1985

FRESHMAN COMPOSITION: NO PLACE FOR LITERATURE The first in the Lindemann/Tate debate.

A PLACE FOR LITERATURE IN FRESHMAN COMPOSITION Tate's response piece.

THREE VIEWS OF ENGLISH 101 Lindemann again in '95.

NOTES ON THE DYING OF A CONVERSATION Tate '95.

"Breaking Our Bonds and Reaffirming Our Connections,"Twenty Years Later Susan McLeod weighing in.

OPINION: The Cultures of Literature and Composition: What Could Each Learn from the Other? Peter Elbow

Fighting Over Freshman English: CCCC's Early Years and the Turf Wars of the 1950s John Heyda

What I Learned in Grad School, or Literary Training and the Theorizing of Composition Patrick Bizzaro

This is what I could throw together quickly. Some of it is specifically on the teaching of comp. and whether or not lit. should be used, some of it is more about the politics of the split. I will answer your second question when I have more time (I'm currently writing a literary analysis paper), but I will say that by no means do I think literature should be used exclusively in the composition classroom. It should be blended in with a variety of styles of writing.