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Papers by James Rushing Daniel
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2023
Recently, a private space race has emerged, helmed by some of the world’s wealthiest figures. The... more Recently, a private space race has emerged, helmed by some of the world’s
wealthiest figures. These space entrepreneurs, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk most
prominently, have framed the new space race as preparation for the permanent
emancipation of humans from Earth. Brad Tabas terms this project the
“post-planetary.” In this essay, I analyze postplanetary rhetoric through Todd
McGowan’s theorization of fantasy, arguing that the discourse gains assent
through operationalizing fantasies of abundance and relegating Earth to
a lost cause. In charting the structure of this discourse, I seek to promote
further disciplinary attention to fantasy for its capacity to illuminate how
contemporary discourses of entrepreneurship and innovation perpetuate
capitalism’s hegemony by cultivating consumers’ desires for plenty. I also
seek to showcase how a rhetorical approach to fantasy both attends to
capitalism’s abortive repression of its contradictions and reveals how the
repressed Real of capitalist violence haunts the entrepreneurial scene.
enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture, 2022
In Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition, James Rushing Daniel argues that capitalism is eminentl... more In Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition, James Rushing Daniel argues that capitalism is eminently responsible for the entangled catastrophes of the twenty-first century—precarity, economic and racial inequality, the decline of democratic culture, and climate change—and that it must accordingly become a central focus in the teaching of writing. Delving into pedagogy, research, and institutional work, he calls for an ambitious reimagining of composition as a discipline opposed to capitalism’s excesses.
Drawing on an array of philosophers, political theorists, and activists, Daniel outlines an anti-capitalist approach informed by the common, a concept theorized by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval as a solidaristic response to capitalism rooted in inventive political action. Rather than relying upon claims of membership or ownership, the common supports radical, collective acts of remaking that comprehensively reject capitalist logics. Applying this approach to collaborative writing, student debt, working culture, and digital writing, Daniel demonstrates how the writing classroom may be oriented toward capitalist harms and prepares students to critique and resist them. He likewise employs the common to theorize how anti-capitalist interventions beyond the classroom could challenge institutional privatization and oppose the adjunctification of the professoriate.
Arguing that composition scholars have long neglected marketization and corporate power, Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition extends a case for adopting a resolute anti-capitalist stance in the field and for remaking the university as a site of common work.
Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, 2020
College Composition and Communication , 2018
While scholars of writing have increasingly turned toward economic issues, the role of debt has r... more While scholars of writing have increasingly turned toward economic issues, the role of debt has remained largely absent from composition scholarship. This article takes stock of the material and ideological magnitude of student debt in the age of neoliberalism and proposes bringing the subject into the writing classroom.
Drawing from recent work in the areas of economics and sociology, this article applies theories o... more Drawing from recent work in the areas of economics and sociology, this article applies theories of precarity and the precariat, terms that denote the marginalized status of contingent workers, to the composition classroom. Reviewing the economic and social conditions precipitating workforce casualization, the article argues that theories of precarity support the efforts of scholars in composition studies thinking beyond the concept of social class and toward models of solidarity. Building upon the work of these scholars, the article advocates attention to the shared precarity of students and proposes methods of enhancing solidarity at the university.
As scholars have recently suggested, rhetoric has long been remiss to non-discursive concerns bey... more As scholars have recently suggested, rhetoric has long been remiss to non-discursive concerns beyond its traditional purview. While many have sought to broaden rhetoric’s scope, a non-discursive rhetorical investigation of social change has not yet attempted to reconcile the tension between a critique of agency and the perception of human responsibility. This article undertakes such a critique through Alain Badiou’s concept of the event, a concept that, the article contends, offers the discipline a means of rethinking the opposition between relativism and flat ontology. Analyzing the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi through the frame of the event, the article regards Bouazizi’s act as an ontic occurrence exerting influence over protestors across the Arab world while demanding collective recognition to emerge as an event.
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2023
Recently, a private space race has emerged, helmed by some of the world’s wealthiest figures. The... more Recently, a private space race has emerged, helmed by some of the world’s
wealthiest figures. These space entrepreneurs, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk most
prominently, have framed the new space race as preparation for the permanent
emancipation of humans from Earth. Brad Tabas terms this project the
“post-planetary.” In this essay, I analyze postplanetary rhetoric through Todd
McGowan’s theorization of fantasy, arguing that the discourse gains assent
through operationalizing fantasies of abundance and relegating Earth to
a lost cause. In charting the structure of this discourse, I seek to promote
further disciplinary attention to fantasy for its capacity to illuminate how
contemporary discourses of entrepreneurship and innovation perpetuate
capitalism’s hegemony by cultivating consumers’ desires for plenty. I also
seek to showcase how a rhetorical approach to fantasy both attends to
capitalism’s abortive repression of its contradictions and reveals how the
repressed Real of capitalist violence haunts the entrepreneurial scene.
enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture, 2022
In Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition, James Rushing Daniel argues that capitalism is eminentl... more In Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition, James Rushing Daniel argues that capitalism is eminently responsible for the entangled catastrophes of the twenty-first century—precarity, economic and racial inequality, the decline of democratic culture, and climate change—and that it must accordingly become a central focus in the teaching of writing. Delving into pedagogy, research, and institutional work, he calls for an ambitious reimagining of composition as a discipline opposed to capitalism’s excesses.
Drawing on an array of philosophers, political theorists, and activists, Daniel outlines an anti-capitalist approach informed by the common, a concept theorized by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval as a solidaristic response to capitalism rooted in inventive political action. Rather than relying upon claims of membership or ownership, the common supports radical, collective acts of remaking that comprehensively reject capitalist logics. Applying this approach to collaborative writing, student debt, working culture, and digital writing, Daniel demonstrates how the writing classroom may be oriented toward capitalist harms and prepares students to critique and resist them. He likewise employs the common to theorize how anti-capitalist interventions beyond the classroom could challenge institutional privatization and oppose the adjunctification of the professoriate.
Arguing that composition scholars have long neglected marketization and corporate power, Toward an Anti-Capitalist Composition extends a case for adopting a resolute anti-capitalist stance in the field and for remaking the university as a site of common work.
Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, 2020
College Composition and Communication , 2018
While scholars of writing have increasingly turned toward economic issues, the role of debt has r... more While scholars of writing have increasingly turned toward economic issues, the role of debt has remained largely absent from composition scholarship. This article takes stock of the material and ideological magnitude of student debt in the age of neoliberalism and proposes bringing the subject into the writing classroom.
Drawing from recent work in the areas of economics and sociology, this article applies theories o... more Drawing from recent work in the areas of economics and sociology, this article applies theories of precarity and the precariat, terms that denote the marginalized status of contingent workers, to the composition classroom. Reviewing the economic and social conditions precipitating workforce casualization, the article argues that theories of precarity support the efforts of scholars in composition studies thinking beyond the concept of social class and toward models of solidarity. Building upon the work of these scholars, the article advocates attention to the shared precarity of students and proposes methods of enhancing solidarity at the university.
As scholars have recently suggested, rhetoric has long been remiss to non-discursive concerns bey... more As scholars have recently suggested, rhetoric has long been remiss to non-discursive concerns beyond its traditional purview. While many have sought to broaden rhetoric’s scope, a non-discursive rhetorical investigation of social change has not yet attempted to reconcile the tension between a critique of agency and the perception of human responsibility. This article undertakes such a critique through Alain Badiou’s concept of the event, a concept that, the article contends, offers the discipline a means of rethinking the opposition between relativism and flat ontology. Analyzing the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi through the frame of the event, the article regards Bouazizi’s act as an ontic occurrence exerting influence over protestors across the Arab world while demanding collective recognition to emerge as an event.