Montaigne, Studentessa, and Performance :: Music Composition Studies

Montaigne, Studentessa, and Performance The field of composition studies has worked to define and make sense of the "basic writer" for decades. In 1977, Mina Shaughnessy called basic writing the "pedagogical west," a frontier, "unmapped, except for a few blazed trails that individual teacher propose through their texts" (4). Since Shaughnessy, the work of David Bartholomae, Min Zhan Lu, Bruce Horner, and others, has expanded upon, and called into question, the term "basic writer." In this paper, rather than do away with the term altogether, I will offer a study of a writer who would be typically labelled "basic." This study will place her work beside that of an acclaimed and historical "expert," Michel de Montaigne. Through a series of close readings, I hope to illustrate the rhetorical oves from dialogue to performance that "Studentessa" (a former and anonymous student of mine) undergoes in her writing. At the same time, I will mark moments in which Montaigne reinscribes these rhetorical moves into his own writing. U ltimately, these points of intersection will reveal the richness inherent in study of writers we call "basic," and allow greater appreciation for the performative abilities of Montaigne. The scope of Studentessa's audience, particularly with her first attempts at essay-writing, is extremely intimate. Specifically, Studentessa is talking to me, the instructor, in an attempt to answer my questions in writing. The first essay that we read in class was Richard Rodriguez's "Achievement of Desire," a biographical account of Rodriguez's education and emotional growth. For their own writing assignment, students were asked to come up with a definition of education, and to test this definition against their understanding of Rodriguez. Studentessa did put together an initial thesis about education: "Education is an essential aspect of our lives. Education is something that you share, but you as an individual can learn it for yourself." During one of our many discussions, I asked Studentessa what pieces made up "education"--were there different forms of education? In response, Studentessa came up with forms: first, of course, was "school," second, was "life experience" (whi ch broke down into "mother wit" and "street smarts"), and third, "relationships." We talked about the importance of applying these forms to Rodriguez's experience: Did his education involve street smarts? In a revised draft, after our weekly meeting, Studentessa writes, "there is another form of education called street-smarts, these people can survive on the streets with their wit.