Being at Genetic Risk: Toward a Rhetoric of Care (RSA Series in Transdisciplinary Rhetoric)

Rhetorics of choice have dominated the biosocial discourses surrounding BRCA risk for decades, telling women at genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancers that they are free to choose how (and whether) to deal with their risk. Critics argue that women at genetic risk are, in fact, not free to choose but rather are forced to make particular choices. In Being at Genetic Risk, Kelly Pender argues for a change in the conversation around genetic risk that focuses less on choice and more on care.
Being at Genetic Risk offers a new set of conceptual starting points for understanding what is at stake with a BRCA diagnosis and what the focus on choice obstructs from view. Through a praxiographic reading of the medical practices associated with BRCA risk, Pender’s analysis shows that genetic risk is not just something BRCA+ women know, but also something that they do. It is through this doing that genetic cancer risk becomes a reality in their lives, one that we can explain but not one that we can explain away.
Well researched and thoughtfully argued, Being at Genetic Risk will be welcomed by scholars of rhetoric and communication, particularly those who work in the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine, as well as scholars in allied fields who study the social, ethical, and political implications of genetic medicine. Pender’s insight will also be of interest to organizations that advocate for those at genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Arts & Photography

Pender, Kelly

History & Criticism

Penn State University Press

Rhetorics of choice have dominated the biosocial discourses surrounding BRCA risk for decades, telling women at genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancers that they are free to choose how (and whether) to deal with their risk. Critics argue that women at genetic risk are, in fact, not free to choose but rather are forced to make particular choices. In Being at Genetic Risk, Kelly Pender argues for a change in the conversation around genetic risk that focuses less on choice and more on care. Being at Genetic Risk offers a new set of conceptual starting points for understanding what is at stake with a BRCA diagnosis and what the focus on choice obstructs from view. Through a praxiographic reading of the medical practices associated with BRCA risk, Pender's analysis shows that genetic risk is not just something BRCA+ women know, but also something that they do. It is through this doing that genetic cancer risk becomes a reality in their lives, one that we can explain but not one that we can explain away. Well researched and thoughtfully argued, Being at Genetic Risk will be welcomed by scholars of rhetoric and communication, particularly those who work in the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine, as well as scholars in allied fields who study the social, ethical, and political implications of genetic medicine. Pender's insight will also be of interest to organizations that advocate for those at genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Techne, From Neoclassicism to Postmodernism: Understanding Writing As a Useful, Teachable Art (Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition)

Kelly Pender's final provocative suggestion-that it is precisely through the apparent opposition between "closed" and "open" that writing itself has been marginalized within the writing classroom-is an extraordinarily insightful point, one that deserves serious consideration within the rhetoric and composition community. -John Muckelbauer, author of Invention and the Future: Rhetoric, Postmodernism, and the Problem of Change The word techne has no equivalent in English and so is usually understood as one of the three terms that approximate its original Greek meaning: art, skill, craft. As a kind of productive knowledge, techne is often defined by its close association with rationality and instrumentality. TECHNE, FROM NEOCLASSICISM TO POSTMODERNISM: UNDERSTANDING WRITING AS A USEFUL, TEACHABLE ART is a book about the relationships among the many meanings of this complex term. Kelly Pender tells the story of techne's presence in the development of rhetoric and composition as an academic discipline in the mid-twentieth century, the influence of postmodern theory on that development, and what is often taught or not taught under the rubric of "writing" in contemporary composition courses. The arguments TECHNE, FROM NEOCLASSICISM TO POSTMODERNISM makes about these relationships are deconstructive and seek to challenge some of the field's most firmly entrenched binaries about what writing is and how (or if) it should be taught. To make these arguments, TECHNE, FROM NEOCLASSICISM TO POSTMODERNISM uses Samuel Weber's retranslation of the Heideggerian term "Ge-stell" as a form of emplacement to show how composition theories and pedagogies based on techne work simultaneously to both "close down" and "open up" possibilities for experiencing writing as an inherently valuable, nonrational mode of bringing-forth. KELLY PENDER holds a PhD in English from Purdue University. She is an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she teaches courses in professional writing, public discourse, critical theory, and classical rhetoric. She has presented papers at numerous conferences, and her work has appeared in journals such as Postmodern Culture, Composition Studies, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. Her research interests include the history and theory of rhetoric and composition, critical theory, and, medical rhetoric, particularly rhetorics of genetic risk and disease prevention.

Techne, from Neoclassicism to Postmodernism: Understanding Writing as a Useful, Teachable Art (Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition)

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

Parlor Press

Parlor Pr

Invention in Rhetoric and Composition examines issues that have surrounded historical and contemporary theories and pedagogies of rhetorical invention, citing a wide array of positions on these issues in both primary rhetorical texts and secondary interpretations. It presents theoretical disagreements over the nature, purpose, and epistemology of invention and pedagogical debates over such issues as the relative importance of art, talent, imitation, and practice in teaching discourse. After a discussion of treatments of invention from the Sophists to the nineteenth century, Invention in Rhetoric and Composition introduces a range of early twentieth-century multidisciplinary theories and calls for invention's awakening in the field of English studies. It then showcases inventional theories and pedagogies that have emerged in the field of Rhetoric and Composition over the last four decades, including the ensuing research, critiques, and implementations of this inventional work. As a reference guide, the text offers a glossary of terms, an annotated bibliography of selected texts, and an extensive bibliography. Janice M. Lauer is Professor of English, Emerita at Purdue University, where she was the Reece McGee Distinguished Professor of English. In 1998, she received the College Composition and Communication Conference's Exemplar Award. Her publications include Four Worlds of Writing: Inquiry and Action in Context, Composition Research: Empirical Designs, and New Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention, as well as essays on rhetorical invention, disciplinarity, writing as inquiry, composition pedagogy, historical rhetoric, and empirical research.

Invention in Rhetoric and Composition

Literature & Fiction

Lauer, Janice M.

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