Fear of Narrative: Revisiting the Bartholomae-Elbow Debate through the Figure of the Writing Teacher in Contemporary American Fiction

Abstract

It is my contention that David Bartholomae and Peter Elbow's well-known discussion in the late 1980s and early 1990s—sometimes referred to as their “debate”—is still a text of central importance in the field of composition studies, one that speaks to timeless questions of narrative and pedagogy in the writing classroom. Indeed, rich representations of writing teachers in contemporary fiction remind us that Bartholomae and Elbow were articulating a crucial theoretical divide, not just in comp theory but in American higher education.

Notes

¹I am indebted to Jill Jeffery for her insights into the work of Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae, and to Rhetoric Review peer reviewers Anne-Marie Hall and Edward White for their comments and suggestions in revising this manuscript.

²Charles Baxter has also written evocatively about teachers, students, and schools in the short story “Gryphon” and the novel Saul and Patsy.

³Rick Bass returns to the theme of male mentorship and apprenticeship often in his work, including in his collection of novellas Platte River and in the short story “The Legend of Pig-Eye.”

Wonder Boys. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Perf. Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire. Paramount Pictures, 2000.