In the probing interviews in this vibrant new book, eminent scholars struggle with some of the most crucial issues facing contemporary intellectuals. Poststructuralist philosopher Judith Butler discusses the "pain" of rigorous intellectual work, saying that it is "necessarily extremely hard labor," as she examines the intersection of discourse and political action. Award-winning filmmaker, philosopher, and social theorist David Theo Goldberg reviews his life's work, especially on issues of racism. Literary critic and feminist philosopher Avital Ronell sets out to disrupt the standard logic of signification, to force readers into fresh ways of perceiving a subject at hand. Postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha discusses how critical literacy is intimately connected to the question of democratic representation, and he elaborates on how cultural difference can lead to a politics of discrimination. And neo-Marxist cultural critic Slavoj Zižek takes readers on an exhilarating journey through a wide range of critical subjects.

In the probing interviews in this vibrant new book, eminent scholars struggle with some of the most crucial issues facing contemporary intellectuals. Poststructuralist philosopher Judith Butler discusses the "pain" of rigorous intellectual work, saying that it is "necessarily extremely hard labor," as she examines the intersection of discourse and political action. Award-winning filmmaker, philosopher, and social theorist David Theo Goldberg reviews his life's work, especially on issues of racism. Literary critic and feminist philosopher Avital Ronell sets out to disrupt the standard logic of signification, to force readers into fresh ways of perceiving a subject at hand. Postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha discusses how critical literacy is intimately connected to the question of democratic representation, and he elaborates on how cultural difference can lead to a politics of discrimination. And neo-Marxist cultural critic Slavoj Zižek takes readers on an exhilarating journey through a wide range of critical subjects.

The fifteen essays and six responses in this volume of the MLA's Research and Scholarship in Composition series ""push the boundaries of knowledge in both feminism and composition,"" as the co-editor Susan C. Jarratt writes, ""by exploring the productive intersections and tensions of the two."" She goes on to say, ""Composition at its best works against the grain of conventional institutional practices.... Both feminist inquiry and post-current-traditional composition studies/styles challenge assumptions and seek to transform ways of thinking, teaching, and learning."" Both are complex, containing different agendas and different voices. Feminism and Composition Studies: In Other Words is a feminist project that boldly places at its centre differences among women. Topics discussed include American history, politics, language, racism, pedagogy, contingent labour in the teaching of writing, e-mail behaviour, and the need for educational and institutional reform. Teachers, graduate students, program administrators, and feminists will find valuable the critiques, theoretical as well as personal, contained in this unusually honest and thought-provoking volume.

A fascinating look at how some of the world's most eminent scholars conceive of their own relationship with writing and with the work of being a critical intellectual. Interviewees Include Gloria Anzaldua, Mary Field Belenky. Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Donald Davidson, Jacques Derrida, Michael Eric Dyson, Stanley Fish, Paulo Freire, Clifford Geertz, Henry Giroux, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, Ernesto Laclau, Jean-Franois Lyotard, J. Hillis Miller, Chantal Mouffe, Avital Ronell, Richard Rorty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tompkins, Stephen Toulmin, and Slavoj Zizek.