Category Books

English Composition as a Happening »

Authors: Geoffrey Sirc
ISBN-13: 9780874214352, ISBN-10: 0874214351
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Date Published: April 2002
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Geoffrey Sirc

Book Synopsis

What happened to the bold, kicky promise of writing instruction in the 1960s? The current conservative trend in composition is analyzed allegorically by Geoffrey Sirc in this book-length homage to Charles Deemer's 1967 article, in which the theories and practices of Happenings artists (multi-disciplinary performance pioneers) were used to invigorate college writing. Sirc takes up Deemer's inquiry, moving through the material and theoretical concerns of such pre- and post-Happenings influences as Duchamp and Pollock, situationists and punks, as well as many of the Happenings artists proper.

With this book, already a cult classic, began a neo-avant-garde for composition studies.

Winner of the Ross W. Winterowd Award for most outstanding book in composition theory.

	The Still-Unbuilt Hacienda	1
1	"What is Composition...?" after Duchamp	33
2	The American Action Writers	69
3	Scenes from Late Sixties Composition	121
4	Writing Classroom as A&P Parking Lot	185
5	Never Mind the Tagmemics, Where's the Sex Pistols?	235
6	English Composition as a Happening II	263
	References	295
	Bonus Track: Funeral Ceremony for the Anti-Proces II	311
	Index	314
	About the Author	319