What Matters Who Writes?
What Matters Who Responds?
Issues of Ownership in the Writing Classroom
Abstract
This text, originally the keynote address given by Andrea Lunsford to the
NCTE conference at Colgate University in August 1995, questions our
assumptions about ownership of text.
Who owns a text? And why do we
believe in this relationship between text and author? Raising this issue
introduces ontologically charged questions: just who writes
the text
in question? Lunsford, in her work with Lisa Ede, has proposed that there
is no single, originary "genius" of authorship. Rather, the text is
socially constructed, a product of discourse, and no one single individual
can claim to own that text. This postmodern view, when juxtaposed with our
romantic notions of individual ownership, reveals the history of
copyright. Notions of ownership arose simultaneously with the need to
protect intellectual property. As the rights of the individual producer
outweigh those of the reader in our litigious society, how can the rights of
the reader be reasserted? Although this hypertext retains the use of an "I"
that can be associated with the voice of "Andrea Lunsford," three other
voices have joined in the creation of this text, while maintaining some
conventions of solitary authorship. Who owns this text?
Author Bios
Andrea A. Lunsford is a distinguished professor and Vice Chair for Rhetoric and
Composition at The Ohio State University. She was the past Chair for the Conference
on College Composition and Communication and is currently a member of the MLA
Executive Council. Her most recent publication is an edited volume Reclaiming
Rhetorica, published in 1995 by the University of P
ittsburg Press. She teaches both
undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of writing as a technology and has a
long-standing interest in electronic literacies.
Rebecca Rickly is an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University, an active member of Rhetnet, the Alliance for Computers and Writing (ACW), and the Instructional Technology Committee of NCTE.
Michael J. Salvo is currently a graduate student at Texas Tech University in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric Concentration in the English Department; he is primarily interested in CMP (Computer Mediated Pedagogy).
Susan West is currently finishing her dissertation,From Owning to Owning Up: 'Authorial' Rights and Rhetorical Responsibilities, at The Ohio State University under the direction of Andrea Lunsford.
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