Rhetorical (Re)Invention in the Archives: A Pedagogy of Memory for Communities and Writing Studies Classrooms

Abstract

This dissertation accesses memory and archival studies for inclusion in the discipline of rhetoric and composition in order to study "collective invention" (Bisecker, 125) practices as they occur in memory places, such as that of the archive. I theorize a pedagogy and memory practice for writing studies classrooms and communities by providing an autoethnographic case study across three levels of composition and rhetoric classes and community archives including the Writing After Katrina Archive Project and the Arizona Memory Project, where I explore the links between memory, place, and the process of rhetorical invention. In doing so, I hope to examine the agentive potential for students, emerging scholars, and community partners to reflect on various acts of composing, such as composing ideas, composing writing, and composing knowledge through the study of memory places and the creation of archives. Using the space of the archive as a pedagogical tool, my project seeks to redefine the space and place of the "archive" from that of a dusty space reserved for scholars, to that of a potentially generative location where critical dialogue is organically produced around the acts of what I term, rhetorical (re)invention. Rhetorical (re)invention, like the production of memory, is a social process of meaning of making that can be extrapolated from local resources. In doing so, this project continues the important work of scholars in both memory studies and rhetoric and composition studies in redefining the archive, reframing invention, and positing a pedagogical framework for teaching college writing and rhetorical studies.