Re‐reading James Moffett: Discourse, Rhetoric, Subjectivity

Abstract

Re‐reading James Moffett's work in the light of more recent scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, this paper presents a ‘deconstructive’ account of Moffett's key texts. Understanding them as instances in themselves of rhetoric and textuality, and reading them at once with and against the grain, the paper explores issues of dialogue, difference and discourse in this regard, seeking to tease out contradictions and ambivalences in Moffett's writing. What emerges is a meaning‐potential for a complex view of subjectivity, and a renewed sense of the value of re‐reading Moffett now, as a resource for thinking English teaching differently and anew.

Keywords:

• James Moffett
• English teaching
• rhetoric
• discourse
• subjectivity
• deconstruction
• dialogue

Notes

1. While it is unlikely that Moffett would have encountered Bakhtin's work at this stage of his career, it is undeniable that there are real connections to be made in this regard, albeit retrospectively (Streufert 1998).

2. A point that is itself not uncontroversial, however – see, for instance, the essays in this issue by Sawyer (2010) and by Burgess, Ellis, and Roberts (2010).

3. It should be noted, however, that such work has tended to dismiss Moffett's work, both explicitly and implicitly, denying even the possibility of rapprochement or dialogue. I see this as both unwarranted and unwise, since it rests upon not distinguishing between curriculum and language, or indeed between the science and the philosophy of language.

4. Indeed, there is arguably a solipsism in Moffett in this regard; it is worth bearing in mind that ‘soliloquy’ precedes ‘conversation’ in his theoretical scheme (Moffett 1968, 64; 1981b).

5. See Green (2009) for a poststructuralist account of curriculum as communication.

6. I have drawn on Moffett's work on various occasions to do just that (e.g. Green 2001, 2003).