The Other Side of Pedagogy: Lacan's Four Discourses and the Development of the Student Writer

258 Pages·2014·3.755 MB·English

by  T. R. Johnson

THE OTHER SIDE
OF PEDAGOGY
SUNY series, Transforming Subjects:
Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Studies in Education
—————
Deborah P. Britzman, editor
THE OTHER SIDE
OF PEDAGOGY
Lacan’s Four Discourses and the
Development of the Student Writer
T. R. JOHNSON
Cover image by T. R. Johnson
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic
tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission
in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Ryan Morris
Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, T. R., 1964–
The other side of pedagogy : Lacan’s four discourses and the development of the
student writer / T. R. Johnson.
pages cm. — (SUNY series, transforming subjects: psychoanalysis, culture, and
studies in education)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5319-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5321-7 (ebook)
1. English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching (Higher)—Psychological
aspects. 2. Psychoanalysis and education. 3. Lacan, Jacques, 1901–1981. I. Title.
PE1404.J647 2014
808'.0420711—dc23 2013045656
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents,
Richard and Julia Johnson

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Recovering the Unconscious: Pedagogy’s Other Side 1
Chapter 1 The Crisis: Forfeiting Our Most Valuable Asset 11
Chapter 2 Contemporary Composition Studies: Development
Means Joining Our Community, and That’s All
There Is to Know 29
Chapter 3 Why the “Growth” Movement Didn’t Grow—
And an Alternative 51
Chapter 4 Psychoanalysis and Pedagogy: Some Historical
Context and Key Terms for Doing the Impossible 75
Chapter 5 A Perfect Ignorance and Paralysis: The Discourse
of the Master 109
Chapter 6 Only Following Directions: The Discourse
of the University 135
Chapter 7 “Songs . . . dripping off my fingers”:
The Discourse of the Hysteric 165
Chapter 8 Playing by Ear: The Discourse of the Analyst 197
Works Cited 229
Index 239
vii

Acknowledgments
This book would never have reached its present form without the support
of a great many people. First, I must thank Marguerite Nguyen for her
unflagging encouragement and for keeping me company when the work was
most heavy and intense. Also, a number of colleagues played an important
part in the book’s initial inception: Mike Griffith of Tulane University’s
Innovative Learning Center helped me to create the video that was a primary
inspiration for this book; Aleksandra Hajduckzek served as a summer
research assistant and gathered the material through which the initial idea
for this book was born; Vince Ilustre and Agnieszka Nance of Tulane’s
Center for Public Service provided me with numerous opportunities to think
publicly about these issues and encouraged me constantly in this journey, as
did Susan Danielson at the University of New Orleans’s Learning Resource
Center. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Dawn Skorczewski, who was
instrumental in helping me to find a publisher. I also offer sincerest thanks
to Heidi Hoechst, whose reading of the book’s introduction enabled me to
make a great leap forward in clarifying my argument. And, at SUNY Press,
I must thank Beth Bouloukos and Deborah Britzman for their openness to
this project and prompt responses every step of the way. Additionally, I’d like
to thank Rafael Chaiken, Anne Valentine, Dave Prout, and Ryan Morris for
their work in preparing this manuscript for the public. I also would like to
thank two of my colleagues in the English Department at Tulane—Gaurav
Desai and Joel Dinerstein—whose support has been essential throughout my
years here. I must also thank the late Jim Slevin of Georgetown University
for first awakening in me a passion for theories and practices of writing
pedagogy, and also Tom Byers at the University of Louisville, without whom
these passions could not have become a professional calling. I’m especially
grateful as well to the Freshman Writing Program’s postdoctoral teaching
fellows who have served at Tulane since Hurricane Katrina, for they have
ix