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dc.contributor.advisorMountford, Roxanne Den_US
dc.contributor.authorLauer, Claire
dc.creatorLauer, Claireen_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-12-05T22:01:56Z
dc.date.available2011-12-05T22:01:56Z
dc.date.issued2006en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10150/193769
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation, Claire Lauer proposes a spatial-metaphorical model for exploring and communicating the self in composition. She uses the concepts of Edward Soja's Thirdspace, Michel de Certeau's tactics, and Turkle and Papert's bricolage as lenses through which to analyze and understand the spatial-metaphorical self-constructions that students in her classes built in the virtual reality of the MOO. These lenses reveal a new kind of agency, one that finds power in complexity and refuses reduction. Through their sites, students show themselves to be comfortable with the unfamiliar and the ambiguous, but also able to adapt, change shape, and see the I as an all--as an infinite sum and ever-changing total. Lauer argues that offering students the opportunity to construct themselves spatially and metaphorically disrupts their assumptions about identity and provides them with new ways of expressing their postmodern subjectivities--of speaking to and about their ever-shifting proximities to the people and events in their lives.Lauer argues that recognizing the complexity of identity facilitates a recognition of the complexity of culture and communication, and shows how identity construction assignments can thus serve as models for larger knowledge exploration and construction. She concludes by arguing that the analysis and production of new media in the composition classroom is essential to the continued goal of composition instructors fostering critical engagement in the classroom. As an extension of identity investigation, such engagement should be a cornerstone of first-year composition and does not have to be at odds with the more practical work of preparing students for their academic careers. In fact, it facilitates the more practical work instructors do in composition because it allows students to see the constructed nature of all discourses and become aware of how we both compose and are composed by the texts we encounter.
dc.language.isoENen_US
dc.publisherThe University of Arizona.en_US
dc.rightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.en_US
dc.subjectIdentityen_US
dc.subjectPostmodernen_US
dc.subjectThirdspaceen_US
dc.subjectTacticsen_US
dc.subjectBricolageen_US
dc.subjectMOOen_US
dc.titleThirdspaces, Tactics and Bricolage: A Postmodern Identity Construction in the Composition Classroomen_US
dc.typetexten_US
dc.typeElectronic Dissertationen_US
dc.contributor.chairMountford, Roxanne Den_US
dc.identifier.oclc137356677en_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Arizonaen_US
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberHea, Amy Kimmeen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberHall, Anne-Marieen_US
dc.identifier.proquest1667en_US
thesis.degree.disciplineRhetoric, Composition & the Teaching of Englishen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineGraduate Collegeen_US
thesis.degree.namePhDen_US
refterms.dateFOA2018-06-13T01:08:27Z
html.description.abstractIn this dissertation, Claire Lauer proposes a spatial-metaphorical model for exploring and communicating the self in composition. She uses the concepts of Edward Soja's Thirdspace, Michel de Certeau's tactics, and Turkle and Papert's bricolage as lenses through which to analyze and understand the spatial-metaphorical self-constructions that students in her classes built in the virtual reality of the MOO. These lenses reveal a new kind of agency, one that finds power in complexity and refuses reduction. Through their sites, students show themselves to be comfortable with the unfamiliar and the ambiguous, but also able to adapt, change shape, and see the I as an all--as an infinite sum and ever-changing total. Lauer argues that offering students the opportunity to construct themselves spatially and metaphorically disrupts their assumptions about identity and provides them with new ways of expressing their postmodern subjectivities--of speaking to and about their ever-shifting proximities to the people and events in their lives.Lauer argues that recognizing the complexity of identity facilitates a recognition of the complexity of culture and communication, and shows how identity construction assignments can thus serve as models for larger knowledge exploration and construction. She concludes by arguing that the analysis and production of new media in the composition classroom is essential to the continued goal of composition instructors fostering critical engagement in the classroom. As an extension of identity investigation, such engagement should be a cornerstone of first-year composition and does not have to be at odds with the more practical work of preparing students for their academic careers. In fact, it facilitates the more practical work instructors do in composition because it allows students to see the constructed nature of all discourses and become aware of how we both compose and are composed by the texts we encounter.


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