Beyond the Personal: Theorizing a Politics of Location in Composition Research

Abstract

inform much research in composition studies. One particular emphasis has been on admitting the personal into our public discourse, on locating ourselves and research participants in our research studies. In what Adrienne Rich calls politics of theorizing begins with the material, not transcending the personal, but claiming it. The goal is, Rich says in an echo of Helene Cixous, to reconnect our thinking and speaking with the body of this particular living human individual, a woman (213).' This new emphasis on the personal, on validating experience as a source of knowledge, raises a number of recurring questions: How does a politics of location informand change-research practices? How do we both affirm the importance of location, and yet understand the limitations of our ability locate ourselves and others? How do issues of power, gender, race, and class shape a politics of location? What ethical principles are consistent with feminist scholarship and can guide researchers? Although these questions are clearly important in feminist scholarship, they are not merely feminist issues. They mark an important point where feminist theories can inform composition studies. And although we believe women's experiences are an important starting point for research because they have been ignored and omitted in studies of many kinds, we also believe that what can be learned from women's experiences and from feminist theory has wider implica-