Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition

361 Pages·2015·2.317 MB·English

by  Paul Lynch, Nathaniel Rivers

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“This intelligent, timely, diversely focused, diversely assembled, and at times, playful ch Thinking with BRUNO LATOUR
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collection of essays provides readers with ways of thinking about, and thinking n
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through, Latour and various dimensions of his work in relation to current issues iv
and concerns in rhetoric and composition studies. This is a collection that will be er in Rhetoric and Composition
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used both widely and frequently, one sure to generate a lot of discussion.”
—Jody Shipka, author of Toward a Composition Made Whole
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est known for his books We Have Never Been Modern, Laboratory Life, and
Science in Action, Bruno Latour has inspired scholarship across many disciplines. T
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In the past few years, the fields of rhetoric and composition have witnessed an in
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explosion of interest in Latour’s work. Editors Paul Lynch and Nathaniel Rivers i
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have assembled leading and emerging scholars in order to continue and focus g
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the debate over what Latour means for the study of persuasion and written
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communication. h
Essays in this volume discern, rearticulate, and occasionally critique rhetoric B
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and composition’s growing interest in Latour. These contributions include work U
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on topics such as agency, argument, rhetorical history, pedagogy, and technology,
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among others. Contributors explain key terms, identify implications of Latour’s L
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work for rhetoric and composition, and explore how his theories might inform T
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writing pedagogies and be used to build research methodologies. U
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Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition shows how Latour’s
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groundbreaking theories on technology, agency, and networks might be taken up, n
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enriched, and extended to challenge scholars in rhetorical studies (both English h
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and communications), composition, and writing studies to rethink some of the t
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field’s most basic assumptions. It is set to become the standard introduction that r
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will appeal not only to those scholars already interested in Latour but also those a
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approaching his work for the first time.
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Paul Lynch is an associate professor of English at Saint Louis University and the m
author of After Pedagogy: The Experience of Teaching. p Edited by
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Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition

Thinking with BRUNO LATOUR
in Rhetoric and Composition
Edited by
Paul Lynch and
Nathaniel Rivers
Southern Illinois University Press • Carbondale
Copyright © 2015 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
Chapter 2 copyright © Clay Spinuzzi, 2014
Chapter 6 copyright © Joshua D. Prenosil, 2014
Chapter 7 copyright © Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, 2014
Chapter 9 copyright © Collin Gifford Brooke, 2014
Chapter 10 copyright © Jeremy Tirrell, 2014
Chapter 11 copyright © Marilyn M. Cooper, 2014
Chapter 12 copyright © Casey Boyle, 2014
Chapter 14 copyright © Jeff Rice, 2014
Chapter 18 copyright © James J. Brown Jr. and Jenell Johnson, 2014
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: “Wooden Pillar, Welsh Assembly.”
Photograph by Steve Mosley, cropped.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition /
Edited by Paul Lynch and Nathaniel Rivers.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8093-3393-6 (paperback)
ISBN 0-8093-3393-7 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-8093-3394-3 (ebook)
1. Rhetoric. 2. Latour, Bruno—Intellectual life. I. Lynch, Paul, 1971–
editor. II. Rivers, Nathaniel A., editor. III. Latour, Bruno, honouree.
P301.T488 2015
808—dc23 2014026164
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For our parents,
Philip and Mary Lynch
Thomas and Nancy Rivers

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction: Do You Believe in Rhetoric and Composition? 1
Paul Lynch and Nathaniel Rivers, Saint Louis University
Part One. Constituting Assemblages
2. Symmetry as a Methodological Move 23
Clay Spinuzzi, University of Texas at Austin
3. Getting Over Incommensurability: Latour, New Materialisms, and
the Rhetoric of Diplomacy 40
Carl G. Herndl, University of South Florida
S. Scott Graham, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
4. From Constituting to Instituting: Kant, Latour, and Twitter 59
Marc C. Santos and Meredith Zoetewey Johnson, University of
South Florida
Part Two. Conceiving Assemblages
5. Rhetoric’s Nonmodern Constitution: Techne, Phusis, and the
Production of Hybrids   81
Scot Barnett, Indiana University Bloomington
6. Bruno Latour Is a Rhetorician of Inartistic Proofs 97
Joshua Prenosil, Creighton University
7. Is No One at the Wheel? Nonhuman Agency and Agentive
Movement 115
Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, Oregon State University
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viii Contents
Part Three. Convening Assemblages
8. The Whole of the Moon: Latour, Context, and the Problem
of Holism 135
Thomas Rickert, Purdue University
9. Bruno Latour’s Posthuman Rhetoric of Assent 151
Collin Gifford Brooke, Syracuse University
1 0. Latourian Memoria 165
Jeremy Tirrell, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Part Four. Composing Assemblages
11. How Bruno Latour Teaches Writing 185
Marilyn M. Cooper, Michigan Technological University
12. An Attempt at a “Practitioner’s Manifesto” 202
Casey Boyle, University of Texas–Austin
13. Flexible Assembly: Latour, Law, and the Linking(s) of Composition 219
Mark A. Hannah, Arizona State University
Part Five. Crafting Assemblages
14. Craft Networks 237
Jeff Rice, University of Kentucky
15. Making a Thing of Quality Child Care: Latourian Rhetoric
Doing Things 256
Sarah Read, DePaul University
16. Tracing Uncertainties: Methodologies of a Door Closer 275
W. Michele Simmons, Miami University
Kristen Moore, Texas Tech University
Patricia Sullivan, Purdue University
17. Dingrhetoriks 294
Laurie Gries, University of Florida
18. Symmetry 310
James J. Brown Jr., Rutgers University–Camden
Jenell Johnson, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Contributors 331
Index 335
Acknowledgments
W
e first thank those who introduced us to Latour: Patricia Sullivan,
Thomas Rickert, and Michael Salvo.
Many thanks as well to the SLU Latour Reading Group: Ruth Evans, Jen-
nifer Rust, Rachel Greenwald Smith, Patrick Brooks, Chris Dickman, Abigail
Lambke, and Katie Zabrowski. Our gratitude also goes to our colleagues in
the Department of English at Saint Louis University.
Thanks to Thomas Rivers for his insightful comments on the introduction.
We are also grateful to Kristine Priddy of Southern Illinois University Press for
her consistent encouragement of this project, and we also extend our gratitude
to Mary Lou Kowaleski, an extraordinarily careful copy editor.
Thanks to all the contributors who made this collection possible.
Most important, we are always and forever grateful to our spouses, Mel-
ody Gee and Jodi Rivers, and our children, Beatrice Lynch, Josephine Lynch,
and Will Rivers.
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