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Book Review: The Performance of Self in Student Writing, by Thomas Newkirk
By: Charles Moran
Publication:
The Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1
Date: Winter 1999
Summary: Moran presents Newkirk's argument that writing about oneself is actually a performance, presenting a "possible" self to an audiences. This writing then, is not private, but social. Newark supports this thesis with much student writing.
Excerpt
Tom Newkirk give us the arguments we need if we are to claim space for expressive writing in our classrooms. He argues that when one writes about the self, that this writing is itself performance, a construction – not entirely a pluming of the depths, not at all the discovery and presentation of an essential 'self,' but a presentation of a possible self to an audience composed of teacher and classmates. This 'self' is performed to, and to a degree constructed by, the society that is its readers. The 'self,' then, is not private, but social.
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