Writing with Deleuze in the Academy: Creating Monsters

212 Pages·2018·3.87 MB·English

by  Stewart Riddle

Stewart Riddle · David Bright 
Editors
Eileen Honan   
Writing with
Deleuze in
the Academy
Creating Monsters
Writing with Deleuze in the Academy
Stewart Riddle David Bright
(cid:129)
Eileen Honan
Editors
Writing with Deleuze
in the Academy
Creating Monsters
123
Editors
Stewart Riddle EileenHonan
University of SouthernQueensland FijiNational University
SpringfieldCentral, QLD,Australia Lautoka,Fiji
DavidBright
MonashUniversity
Clayton, VIC,Australia
ISBN978-981-13-2064-4 ISBN978-981-13-2065-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2065-1
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Foreword
GeorgeOrwell(1946),inhis essay, WhyIWrite, gavefour reasons: sheer egoism,
aestheticenthusiasm,historicalimpulseandpoliticalpurpose.Inelaboratingonthe
last of these, Orwell described a:
desireto pushthe world inacertain direction, to alter other peoples’ideaof thekindof
societythattheyshouldstriveafter.Onceagain,nobookisgenuinelyfreefrompolitical
bias.Theopinionthatartshouldhavenothingtodowithpoliticsisitselfapoliticalattitude.
Inspiteoftheimpulse—andindeedimperative—towritethatisvisiteduponallof
us, there is little guidance on how to write—well or otherwise. Generic research
texts, of the kind aimed at students and novice researchers, often barely mention
writing beyond it being mere technical exercise. Indiscussing research,these texts
denyboththeintensely politicalaspect ofeducational research andtheinterwoven
natureoftheory,philosophy,practicesandmaterialrealities(Kuhn1970;Schostak
2002;Punch2005).Thefailuretoacknowledgeandengagewiththeseinteractions
means that students and novice researchers part with their cash in the hope of
gaining meaningful advice and instead find themselves unable to cope with the
series of‘derailments’(Schostak2002,5)thattheirresearchpresentsandenterthe
‘logicalgraveyardwheresenseandnonsensefuseandmeaningsareloosenedfrom
theiranchorageinmasternarratives’(ibid.).Asaconsequence,studentsandnovice
researchersstruggletoorientthemselvesandinterpretthepoliticalcontextinwhich
theyoperate.Writingbecomesaformoftortureasstudentsandnoviceresearchers
forcetheirresearchintothepassivevoice,fightwithlanguageandseektodistance
themselves from their own text.
At the same time as we fail to prepare new researchers for the frontiers of
academic writing, much of our own critical spirit, according to Latour (2004,
p. 225) has ‘run out of steam.’ Consequently, we have become like mechanical
toys, endlessly repeating the same gesture, trying to conquer territories that no
longer exist whilst being unprepared for the ‘new threats, new dangers, new tasks,
new targets’ (ibid.) that we face.
v
vi Foreword
Chapter1providesuswithathrillingglimpseintowhatispossiblewhenwriting
is actually allowed to be an act of becoming. Eileen Honan, David Bright and
Stewart Riddle have brought together a splendid group of people whom they have
incitedtocreatemonstersthroughtheirengagementwithDeleuze.Thefearlessness
of some of the experimentation is all the more admirable, coming as it does from
these eminent scholars. The editors have set this against a powerful critique of the
academy andthe need for writingagainstits damagingandbrutalhegemony. That
writing needs to be monstrous in order to have either effect or affect.
The contributors, in fulfilling the promise of monstrosity, have opened them-
selvesupinawaythatisunprecedentedandinsodoingmakethisbookintothegift
thatresearchstudentsandnoviceresearchers—andtherestofus—havebeenwaiting
for. This gift includes ‘non-guidance’ from Eileen Honan following reflections on
her own ‘foolish failure’, which of course is far from the case; insights into the
agonies,asanEarlyCareerResearcher,ofbothengagingwithandtryingtoresistan
identityofan‘academicwritingmachine’fromStewartRiddle;anenlightening—but
terrifying—discussion of Altmetrics and the consequences of a particular kind of
reading of academic writing by Susanne Gannon. Dagmar Alexander and his col-
leagues demonstrate just how to start a collaborative writing experiment ‘in the
middle’,whilstPeterBanselandSheridanLinnell’s,riotouslyfunnychapter,‘“Terre
Chérie—EdU.K.Shone’:ADesiringMachineforRappin’andExtrapolatin’onthe
MonstrositiesofAcademia”(Chap.9),showushowtobebothplayfulandserious.
Their‘director’sintroductions’provideanimportantmeta-narrativethatfocuses,in
each of the scenes, on the literary work being performed in these and is a joy.
Carolina Cbezaz-Benalcázar delivers an extremely absorbing, and again strongly
reflexive,narrativeonherrelationshipwiththeEnglishlanguage.Theultimategift
ofthisbookisthatitgivestwofingerstotheacademybutalsoshowsushowtogo
on with it, without then subsequently having to cross those fingers.
Unleashing writing this bold is an exercise in political thought that, as Arendt
(2006) pointsout,requirespractice.And thatpracticeoffersaformoftraining that
does not prescribe what we should think but helps us to learn how to think. This
accomplishment represents a fighting experience gained from standing one’s
groundbetween‘theclashingwavesofpastandfuture’(Arendt2006,p.13)andis
exemplified in Kafka’s parable:
Hehastwoantagonists:thefirstpresseshimfrombehind,fromtheorigin.Thesecondblocks
theroadahead.Hegivesbattletoboth.Tobesure,thefirstsupportshiminhisfightwiththe
second,forhewantstopushhimforward,andinthesamewaythesecondsupportshiminhis
fightwiththefirst,sincehedriveshimback.Butitisonlytheoreticallyso.Foritisnotonly
thetwoantagonistswhoarethere,buthehimselfaswell,andwhoreallyknowshisinten-
tions?Hisdream,though,isthatsometimeinanunguardedmoment…hewilljumpout
ofthefightinglineandbepromoted,onaccountofhisexperienceoffighting,totheposition
ofumpireoverhisantagonistsintheirfightwitheachother.(CitedinArendt2006,p.7).
Birmingham, UK Julie Allan
University of Birmingham
Foreword vii
References
Arendt, H. (2006). Between past and future: Eight exercises in political thought. New York:
PenguinBooks.
Burke, K.(1936).Permanenceandchange.NewYork:NewRepublicBooks.
Kuhn, T.(1970).Thestructureofscientificrevolutions.Chicago,ChicagoUniversityPress.
Latour, B.(2004).Whyhascritiquerunoutofsteam?Frommattersoffacttomattersofconcern.
CriticalInquiry,30,225–248.
Orwell, G.(1946).WhyIwrite.http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw.
Punch, K. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches.
London:SagePublications.
Schostak, J.(2002).Understanding,designingandconductingqualitativeresearchineducation.
Buckingham/Philadelphia:OpenUniversityPress.
Contents
1 Bringing Monsters to Life Through Encounters with Writing . . . . 1
Eileen Honan, David Bright and Stewart Riddle
2 Using Pregnant Text as a Lure for Collective Writing
and Its Monstrous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, Adam T. Clark, Timothy Wells
and Jorge Sandoval
3 Unplugging from the Goldberg Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Eileen Honan
4 Becoming Monstrous: On the Limits of the Body of a Child . . . . . 45
Thekla Anastasiou, Rachel Holmes and Katherine Runswick-Cole
5 An Experiment in Writing that Flows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Stewart Riddle
6 On Being and Becoming the Monstrous Subject
of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Susanne Gannon
7 Signs to Be Developed: Experiments in Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
David Bright
8 An Experiment in Writing that Flows: Citationality
and Collaborative Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Dagmar Alexander, Jan Bradford, Susanne Gannon, Fiona Murray,
Naomi Partridge, Zoi Simopoulou, Jonathan Wyatt,
Corrienne McCulloch, Anthea Naylor and Lisa Williams
9 ‘Terre Chérie—Ed U. K. Shone’: A Desiring Machine for
Rappin’ and Extrapolatin’ on the Monstrosities of Academia. . . . . 119
Peter Bansel and Sheridan Linnell
ix
x Contents
10 Shifting Sands: Writing Across Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Linda Henderson
11 Falling In/Out of Languagings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Carolina Cabezas-Benalcázar
12 Composing with the Chthulucene: Desiring
a Minor Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Naomi Barnes
13 Learning to Fear the Monstrous: Klossowski
and the Immortal Adolescent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
David R. Cole
14 Afterword: Writing Monstrous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Maggie MacLure
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 211
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
StewartRiddle isaSeniorLecturerintheSchoolofTeacherEducationandEarly
ChildhoodattheUniversityofSouthernQueensland.Hisresearchinterestsinclude
social justice and equity in education, music-based research practices and research
methodologies. He also plays bass in a band called Drawn from Bees.
David Bright is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
David’sresearchinterestsincludestudentandteacheridentity,poststructuraltheory
and post-qualitative research and writing.
Dr.EileenHonan isProfessorinEducationalResearchatFijiNationalUniversity,
where her work centres on supporting early career academics to develop their
research capabilities. She is interested in post-qualitative research methods and
inquiry and the application of Deleuzean philosophy to the ontology and episte-
mology of educational research. She is an academic researcher and writer.
Contributors
Dagmar Alexander University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Thekla Anastasiou Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Peter Bansel Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
Naomi Barnes Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Jan Bradford University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
David Bright Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
xi