Interview

Freewriting, Voice, and the Virtue of Making a Mess: A Conversation with Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written extensively on writing theory and the teaching of writing. He has published several influential books, including Writing Without Teachers (1973), Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process (1981), and Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing (2000), in addition to numerous articles, workshops and conference presentations. He is an advocate of freewriting and other strategies that empower students to develop their own voices in writing. He is currently working on a book on speech and writing.  On 20 October 2008, IW Editors Wade Mahon and Sarah Pogell spoke with Elbow by telephone.

Articles

-Oral History’s Turn: Archival Thinking and the Divine Views of the Interdialectic. Brad Lucas

Abstract: Responding to the paucity of attention to the interview as a research method, this article argues for the primacy of oral history interviewing as a generative practice essential to qualitative research and aimed specifically to foster knowledge-making. The essay extends oral history beyond the discipline of history, explicates the complex dynamism and contextual conditions of an oral history interview, and theorizes the dialogic and dialectic implications of the interview. Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Michael Carter, and various works in rhetorical theory, the “interdialectic” is defined as an intersubjective, highly rhetorical (epideictic) space that an interview can foment. Finally, the archiving of oral history collections is emphasized as necessary for future historiographical work in rhetoric and composition.

-Story, History, and Sociological Theory: a Holistic Method for the Examination of Long-Term Peace Activism. Leah Rogne

Abstract: Recent decades have seen a resurgence in the popularity of qualitative methods in sociology, and new conversations are taking place about the use of oral histories and life stories in the construction of sociological knowledge. I describe a holistic approach to the collection, analysis, and presentation of oral accounts from World War II conscientious objectors. I argue for a method that presents the accounts in a way that respects the integrity of the stories themselves but provides a historical context and applies theory so that one can contribute to a body of knowledge in sociology, in this case about long-term persistence in social movements.

-Interviews and Personal Journeys: Contingencies on Writing. David Sonenschein

Abstract: Research interviews are prescripted insofar as their form and content must be compatible with the analytic and rhetorical aims of those who will write the results of the study. Sometimes, however, events will disrupt this feedback and send it in other directions, placing interviews under different criteria for presentation, and setting them at a disadvantage because the linkage to a founding discourse has been broken. When the original intellectual allegiances and production ambitions are abandoned, the interviews risk being spoken of merely as autobiography, or sent forth in their own voice.

-HBO’s Unchained Memories: From Oral History to Slavery Memorial. Sarah Henstra

Abstract: The film Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (HBO, 2003) explores and celebrates what it calls the “unique historical record” created by the oral histories of ex-slaves in the southern USA in the 1930s. This essay treats the film, together with the oral histories that comprise its source material, as a memory-site: a discursive space for negotiation between the priorities of public memory and the private memories of individual subjects. Examining the way a documentary film “performs” an oral history archive can illuminate the way oral history itself involves scripting, characterization, interpretation, staging and rehearsal as well as the recording of the past. The commemorative achievement of Unchained Memories is remarkable despite the film’s avoidance of direct commentary on race.

-Digital Lives: Oral Histories, Community Building, and Experimental Multimedia. Paul Longley Arthur

Abstract: The increasing use of digital media means that oral histories are now reaching far greater audiences. In fact the oral history field has come to be a central focus for digital history researchers. This is because oral histories lend themselves to digital forms of delivery much more readily than text-based representations of history. This article reflects on how oral history is being transformed in the digital domain and presents a research-in-progress report on two major Australian oral history projects. Both include the production of experimental multimedia works. The discussion deals with practical issues including collaboration, funding, design, user interface, navigation, narrative frameworks, and public access. Multimedia has the capacity to change the concept of history in the public imagination to something that is accessible, multiple, variable, infinitely open to renewal, and above all, something that any individuals in the community can contribute to through their personal stories.

Reviews

Plagiarism: Alchemy and Remedy in Higher Education, by Bill Marsh

Reviewed by Elaine E. Whitaker
 

The Dao of Rhetoric, by Steven C. Combs

Reviewed by Dan Brown

Doing Emotion: Rhetoric, Writing, Teaching, by Laura R. Micciche

Reviewed by Liberty Kohn

The End of Composition Studies, by David W. Smit

Reviewed by Lisa Johnson-Shull

Beyond the Archives: Research as Lived Process, by Gesa E. Kirsch and Liz Rohan

Reviewed by Leslie Jo Sena