I did several JSTOR searches today, looking for how often people in English and in composition and rhetoric talk about economics. In JSTOR (which should be available via your nearest academic library, if not your community library), I searched for the word “economic” in the title and abstract fields for the journals College English and CCC. Results: two hits, both for College English. One an article from 1947, the other an article from 1977. Apparently, we only talk specifically about economics once every thirty years or so. Next, I searched for the word “economic” in the full text field for the journal CCC. CCC articles tend to run between 4000 and 7000 words. Volume 1 of CCC was published in 1950; since then, there has been a total of 3070 articles (or, very roughly, 16,885,000 words) published in the journal’s pages. In that time, compositionists have used the words “economic” or “economics” 207 times. (For much cooler wordcount fun, go check out wordcount.org. 4808 1427!) This gives me some additional information about the contours of economic and class discourses in English and composition; my next step will probably be to do the same sort of thing with The Bedford Bibliography.
In other news, Zeugma’s new favorite game is upstairs-downstairs. She loves being out on my second-floor little deck behind the kitchen, being able to watch the birds that come to the birdfeeder up close, and she wants to go outside every chance she gets. So I’ll go out there with a book and the laptop and do some work and make sure she doesn’t go down the stairs. Only lately she’s gotten quick and bold. She’ll dart around me and down the steps, then dash across the lower deck (the flower shop and restaurant use it) and up the other stairs to the bigger second-floor deck on the other side, behind my bedroom. I chased her a couple times, with her looking back every few steps to make sure I was following, and she was delighted to find that the other door led back into the bedroom. (It was a better option for me than carrying her, fussing and wiggling and clawing, back down and back up the deck stairs.) So now it’s a game: pick a time when Dad’s not watching, dash down the steps, let him chase you up the other steps and let you back into the bedroom, and then run around to the kitchen again.
OK, I can indulge that, at least for a little while. The problem came the other night, when I was refinishing some furniture and had the sliding door in the kitchen cracked for ventilation.
Pitch black out and Zeugma shoves her head through the crack, and then butts her shoulders against either side until the door’s wide enough to squeeze through, and wriggles out. Keep in mind, now, that Zeugma’s a black tortie. I hustle down the stairs after her, cussing, and squint around and — nothing. It’s all black. I’m frantic, worried that she’ll find the stairs down to the driveway and Route 9’s heavy traffic. I dash back up, grab the flashlight, and run back down, looking everywhere. Don’t see her. Then my common sense kicks in, and I go up the other steps, and sure enough, there she is, waiting by the door. Only it’s locked and I don’t have my keys, and I’m mad at her, and she can tell. So I go to pick her up and she dashes under the table, and I go under the table and she dashes to the other corner, and finally I get her and put her under one arm with the other hand holding the flashlight and she wiggles and fusses and claws as I carry her back down and back up the other steps, and put her in the bedroom and close the door for a time-out.
God, she’s a little stinker. Probably no surprise I’ve always loved the bad ones. But yes, we’re fine; she’s sprawled on the desk and letting me stroke her chin while I try to type this one-handed.
Anyway: I’m flying out to Seattle tomorrow, for a wedding and to spend a few days with my mom’s family. I’m taking Arthur Coon’s “An Economic X Marks the Spot” (College English, 1947) with me, as well as some other stuff, so if I can find some wireless, I’ll try to post occasionally.
Did you try capitalis* and corporat* (or $, or whatever your library’s index system’s wild-card symbol is)? Did you try “upward mobility”? I think there’s a little more R&C scholarship that at least obliquely refers to economic conditions and capitalist values. Demonstrating your knowledge of that scholarship would make your claim about the dearth of scholarship on class in R&C more nuanced; it’s not that R&C scholars aren’t talking about economics, exactly, but more that they’re not engaging with economic theory as directly and seriously as you are, or as you say, they’re not talking specifically about economics. I’m looking at such an article right now (which references Zuboff’s In the Age of the Smart Machine, but maybe many R&C articles do — bibliographical citations of economic theory articles and monographs in R&C work would be an interesting thing to count too). I gave you the citation back in March, but here it is again:
Hawisher, G.E., & Selfe, C.L. (1991). The rhetoric of technology and the electronic writing class. College Composition and Communication, 42, 55-65.
Also:
Selfe, C.L. (1999). Technology and literacy in the twenty-first century: The importance of paying attention. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
You’ve probably read that last one before. I read it when I was working on my master’s thesis, and I’m about 90% sure I remember her saying something about C&W pedagogy’s helping to perpetuate the capitalist system, or something to that effect.
How ’bout this for a new tagline:
Vitia: Marxism and Kitties!
Thanks, Clancy — quite familiar with them both, and I think many C&C folk come to Zuboff’s book through Charlie M’s work. And you’re right, there’s a lot more that obliquely refers to economic issues: that’s one of the primary components of my thesis. The difficulty is that so many do it un-self-consciously, or equate “the market” with “capitalism” with “the economy” (with, too often, “democracy”). Selfe’s book is the best extended treatment yet of the intersection of political and economic concerns with literacy instruction, but her focus is primarily upon the large-scale intersection of politics and economics and how that intersection drives demand for wired literacies. My interest is more in how economic concerns play out on the smaller, more local scale (that compositionists more often like to focus on). But yeah, you’re right: it’s hard to fit much nuance in a quick single-paragraph observation. Definitely a good idea for me to follow up on some of the types of searches you’re suggesting.
Krista — maybe, “I’m not quite a Marxist — but my kitties might be”? 🙂