HOW SOCIAL TRAUMA AFFECTS HOW WE WRITE: Post 9/11 Rhetorical Theory and Composition Pedagogy

"Today's educators also face the additional challenge of working with a generation of students weaned on the rhetoric of viral micro-communication technologies, like texting, YouTube videos and Tweets - technologies that bear the potential to be highly democratic, but at the same time, also pose serious threats to individual privacy and intellectual property. Murphy's focus on mediated civic contact zones will be of great benefit in helping students understand their civic responsibility when using these and other forms of viral communication.
Robin Murphy's work is an accessible, detailed and invaluable aid not only to teachers of composition, but also to those teaching culture and media studies."
-Prof. Gary Heba,Bowling Green State University

"One of the real strengths of the text – and there are many – is Murphy’s ability to clearly connect current pedagogical and theoretical approaches such as Critical Theory, Culture Studies, and the Post-Process Movement to this specific moment in our history. Building on Friere and Chomsky’s ideas that education is democratizing, Murphy’s theory asks student writers to actively engage as citizens with the world around them by enacting rhetorical, literacy, and cultural awareness skills.
Murphy’s work is an important addition to theoretical and pedagogical discussions of new media literacy and production as well as a rich and user-friendly guide to instructors for bringing cultural artifacts into their writing classrooms in meaningful ways. The mix of historical information on related movements in composition studies, theoretical underpinnings for such projects within writing classrooms, and specific examples of cultural artifacts and texts appropriate for such an approach, makes this text both useful and instructional for anyone interested in composition studies."
-Prof. Jen Almjeld, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces,

From the Foreword:
“...This book is a legacy to the cultural studies goal of moving from critique to transformation, from passive complicity with to active resistance to dominant discourses that attempt to dictate how we should respond to our world, but always understanding that the relationship between both complicity and resistance is recursive. Equally significant, this book is an eloquent reminder about the relevance of a 21st-century new media rhetorical education in this transformative process.”
­-Prof. Kristine L. Blair, Bowling Green State University

FOREWORD
by Kristine L. Blair, PhD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION AND JUSTIFICATION
Post 9/11 Theory Beginnings
Rhetorical and Democratic Education
Critical Pedagogy and Critical Literacy
Visual Literacy
Media Literacy
Cultural Literacy
Multimodal Literacy
Culture Studies Movement
Post-Process Movement
9/11 Rhetorics
Justification of the Study
Chapter Overviews

CHAPTER II. THE HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL ROLES RHETORICAL EDUCATION IN COMPOSITION PEDAGOGY
Rhetorical and Democratic Education
Contemporary Theories of Rhetorical Education
Contemporary Rhetors and Rhetoricians
Rhetoric and Composition Education Curriculum
Visual and Media Rhetorics and Modern Composition Textbooks
Critical Pedagogy Theory
Culture Studies Pedagogy Theory
Post-Process Pedagogy Theory
Rhetorical Space and Post-9/11 Theory

CHAPTER III. RESONANT HISTORICAL CULTURAL EVENTS AS CIVIC CONTACT ZONES
Cultural Events and Literacy Developments
Literacy Post-WWII
Media Literacy and the Vietnam War
Critical Cultural Literacy and The OKC Bombing
Literacy and 9/11 Resonant Rhetorics
Vietnam War Rhetorics
WWII Rhetorics OKC Bombing Rhetorics
Post-9/11 Rhetorics
Historical Events as Curricular Contact Zones
WWII Curriculum: Reading and Writing the Holocaust
Vietnam War Curriculum: The Vietnam War as Contact Zone
OKC Bombing Curriculum: Education as a Memorial and Museum Mission
Looking toward a 9/11 Curriculum

CHAPTER IV. POST-9/11 RHETORICAL THEORY AND POST-9/11 COMPOSITION PEDAGOGY
Post-9/11 Rhetorical Theory
Definitions
Post-9/11 Rhetorical Theory and Literacy Developments
Critical Literacy
Media Literacy
Visual Literacy
Multimodal Literacy
Post-9/11 Rhetorical Theory and Resonant Rhetorics
Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetoric of Anger
Rhetoric of Patriotism
Rhetoric of Dissent
Rhetoric of Memorial
Rhetoric of Myth 88 Post-9/11 Rhetorical Theory as a Curricular Contact Zone
9/11 as a Contact Zone
Teaching Democratically
Teaching Responsible Citizenry in a Complex World
Teaching Multimodal Literacy
From Theory to Practice
Literacy
Post-9/11 Composition Pedagogy
Literacy
Rhetoric
Curriculum
Heuristics
Do It Yourself
Post-9/11 Heuristics
Utilizing Popular Culture: Designing the Course
Conclusion

CHAPTER V. APPLICATIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND CONTENTIONS 117
Applications… 117 24: Real Time Television
LOST: Multi-Media Television..
HEROES: The Graphic Novel meets Television
Other Application Considerations..
Implications
Subverting the Heuristic
Teacher Training…
New Media Assessment
Objections to Cultural Theory, Critical Theory, and Post-Process Theory
Further Study
Feminisms and 9/11
Learning Difficulties and 9/11
Citizen Media and 9/11
Conclusion: Katrina and 9/11
Final Comment 141

WORKS CITED
FIGURES CITED INDEX