Writing and Desire: Synthesizing Rhetorical Theories of Genre and Lacanian Theories of the Unconscious - Composition Forum 33, Spring 2016

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay

To clarify the role of desire in discursive practice, the article synthesizes rhetorical genre studies with Lacanian theories of the unconscious. It argues that rhetorical theories can be refined to explain actors’ unconscious investments and resistance to genre-maintained desires, and that psychoanalytic concepts can be advanced by identifying the rhetorical tools that materialize desire in concrete situations. The analysis draws on students’ career-portfolio compositions and their negotiations of identity performance in professional-interview contexts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Desire in discursive practice

Case study: career portfolios and identity performance

Genre theory and typified rhetorical actions

Desire as social motive and psychoanalytic refinement

Current Issue From the Editors Weblog Editorial Board Editorial Policy Submissions Archives Accessibility Search Composition Forum 33, Spring 2016 Writing and Desire: Synthesizing Rhetorical Theories of Genre and Lacanian Theories of the Unconscious Ross Collin Abstract: To clarify the role of desire in discursive practice, this article examines rhetorical theories of genre and Lacanian theories of the unconscious. The former, it is argued, might be refined to shed more light on actors’ unconscious investments in and resistance to the desires maintained by genres. The latter, meanwhile, might be refined to address how desires are materialized in concrete situations. These refinements can be achieved when the two approaches are synthesized in a theory that figures genres as resources by which actors coordinate and materialize desires. This argument is developed through an extended investigation of students’ desires to perform particular kinds of identities as they compose career portfolios. Recently, upon concluding a multi-year research project, I thought about the data that got away: the statements, texts, and events for which I never fully accounted. The project focused on high school-based career portfolio programs, which required students to assemble portfolios of artifacts from courses, extracurricular activities, and everyday life (see Collin) . In personal essays, students explained how their portfolios chart their career trajectories. At the end of the year, students used their portfolios in mock professional interviews to explain to adults their plans for finding good work. As schools often defined the latter in terms of middle class careers, many working class and small farming students refused or struggled to take up the desires endorsed in portfolio programs. They grumbled about their disinterest in or discomfort with assuming middle class desires for middle class lives. As selfdescribed “farm kids” often joked, it is difficult to represent years of shit shoveling in a portfolio designed to show your lifelong desire for personally meaningful, stimulating work. These jokes were met with raucous, explosive laughter from other students. Despite the frequency of these jokes and the intensity of others’ reactions, I never did them justice in my analysis. I analyzed portfolio programs by using theories developed in rhetorical genre studies (henceforth “RGS”; see this journal’s special issue on RGS , introduced in Weisser, Reiff, and Dryer; see also Bawarshi; Collin; Devitt; Miller) . RGS defines genres as flexible resources communicants use to build and act in different contexts. More specifically, RGS posits that genres maintain desires to perform socially recognizable acts in recurrent situations. Thus, RGS defines desire mainly as social motive. While this definition is not wrong, it does not address—and isnot built to address—the psychic processes whereby actors invest in or resist desires maintained by genres. Therefore, when using RGS to study career portfolio programs, I could only note that many farm kids seemed uncomfortable adopting or even performing the middle class desires maintained by the portfolio genre. I had few ways of explaining why so many farm kids resisted middle class desires by making shit-shoveling jokes. Moreover, I could not account for the force of students’ laughter. In this article, I develop a theory that brings into view some of the psychic processes of genre work. A more psychoanalytically attuned theory of genre can help teachers and researchers of composition deepen their understandings of how and why different writers take up, adapt, or resist different forms of writing. To build this argument, I blend RGS with Jacques Lacan’s theories of the unconscious. By the latter, I mean the content, structures, and processes of the psyche of which people are not ordinarily aware. Lacan’s theories describe how unconscious desires flow through socio-symbolic orders and fuel

FAQs

What does the article aim to clarify about desire in discursive practice?

It clarifies how desire functions in discourse by combining rhetorical theories of genre with Lacanian theories of the unconscious, showing how desires are invested in, resisted, and materialized through genres.

How does the author use career portfolios to develop the argument?

The article investigates how students compose career portfolios and use them in mock professional interviews, revealing how students coordinate identities and respond to genre-endorsed desires.

What role does genre theory play in the synthesis proposed by the author?

Genre theory is used as a starting point to define genres as flexible resources for typified rhetorical actions, while psychoanalytic concepts are added to address unconscious psychic processes not covered by standard rhetorical genre accounts.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay