Male Students and Literacy Narratives

Reading a terrific piece this morning (that I wish I had had the foresight to write):

Launius, Christie. "Brains versus Brawn: Classed and Racialized Masculinity in Literacy Narratives by Rose, Rodriguez,Villanueva,and Gilyard." CCC 61:2 (Dec. 2009): W283-W309.

A brilliant project that got me thinking about my Murray project. She organizes her article into three sections, looking, first, at how the conflict between working class masculinity and school/literacy begins in each of the narratives, how it is managed, and then how it is resolved. She has insight things to say about each of the narratives--the way that Rose and Rodriguez leave their working-class masculinity behind and Gilyard and Villanueva work to maintain and incorporate it--I think she points out that Villanueva never quite gives it up and Gilyard works towards a both/and stance. She writes:

Just as they argue against assimilation, their narratives reveal that they believe it possible and desirable to maintain aspects of working-class masculinity while obtaining an education. (W302)

And

Of the four writers, Gilyard and Villanueva were the most successful at performing working-class masculinity and are the two whose narratives express a desire to maintain it; by contrast, Rodriguez and Rose admired working-class masculin- ity as adolescents, but didn’t really fulfill its mandates, a fact which I believe informs their rhetorical efforts to divest it of its power and potency. (W305)

In the end, Launius attempts to draw implications for those who work with working-class male (and female) students.

This piece is terrific and would serve as an excellent piece of (rhetorical, feminist, critical, literary) analysis for me and my students. Furthermore, it suggests an interesting approach to organizing readings in a future course on men and masculinity.

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Also, just rediscovered "She Toiled for A Living: Writing Lives and Identities of Older Female Students," a chapter by Mary Hallet. It might be worth revisiting this piece and thinking through a similar piece "of Older Male Students." It hasn't occurred to me, but it might be interesting to talk to male students--think about Brad or Joe and their stories of growing up and school, reading and writing and the place these activities held in their lives.

Masculinity and Harvard Comp

An Open Source radio show that gets me thinking about my project on masculinity, the turn of the 20th century, TR, and the establishment of comp at Harvard:

Jackson Lears on Obama's Sorrows of Empire

And a book that I might check out: Rebirth of a Nation (Lears)

Lydon's summary:

In Lears’ rueful reconsideration of the story, Teddy Roosevelt reemerges as the poster-face of the era: the first captain of American empire and true ancestor of the bathetic George W. Bush.

The first Gilded Age and its lingering effects are almost reducible to a contest of ideas and temperaments between a great teacher and his student who became a giant president.

“Unless we keep the barbarian virtues,” Teddy Roosevelt wrote in 1899, “gaining the civilized ones will be of little avail.”

Masculinity and Harvard Comp

If I ever get back to the point where I am going to tackle a project on gender and the first Harvard writing course, I might take a look at:

"Rhetoric for the Meritocracy: The Creation of Composition at Harvard (1976)" by Wallace Douglas. See The Norton Book of Composition Studies, p. 74)

Also:

Godkin, E.L. "The Illiteracy of American Boys." Educational Review 8 (1897): 1-9.