Composition / Rhetoric / African American Studies G IL Y A R D “Composition and Cornel West is an engaging study of a major intel- lect and his importance for rhetoric and composition. . . . It asks us C to think hard about our role as citizens participating in the demo- O cratic experiment that is the United States of America.” M COMPOSITION AND P —Bradford T. Stull, author of Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden: O S Du Bois, King, Malcolm X, and Emancipatory Composition I T I CORNEL WEST O “Keith Gilyard’s scholarship is superlative, demonstrating a com- N A mand of canonized and contemporary disciplines, including phi- N losophy, rhetoric, composition, American literature, and African D C American expressive culture.” O R —David G. Holmes, author of Revisiting Racialized Voice: N African American Ethos in Language and Literature E L W Notes toward a Deep Democracy Composition and Cornel West: Notes toward a Deep Democracy identifies E S and explains key aspects of the work of Cornel West as they relate to com- T : position studies, focusing on rhetorical strategies that comprise an up- N o dated form of cultural criticism that West calls prophetic pragmatism. t e This is the first book to comprehensively connect the ideas of one of s t America’s premier scholars of religion, philosophy, and African American o w studies with composition theory and pedagogy, and it contains the only a KEITH GILYARD r interview in which Cornel West directly addresses the field of composi- d tion. a D e e Keith Gilyard is Distinguished Professor of English at Pennsylvania State p University, University Park, and an award-winning author of numerous D e books and publications. m o c r a southern illinois university press c y 1915 university press drive mail code 6806 carbondale, il 62901 www.siu.edu/~siupress US NO iissbbnn 097-88-009-38-2089534-2-28 54-3 IVERSITUTHERN Y P ILL REIN SO SIS Printed in the United States of America Gilyard mechical.indd 1 3/27/08 11:48:18 AM (cid:3) (cid:73) (cid:71) (cid:74) (cid:73) (cid:77) (cid:67) (cid:78) (cid:67) (cid:73) (cid:72) (cid:0) (cid:59) (cid:72) (cid:62) (cid:0) (cid:3) (cid:73) (cid:76) (cid:72) (cid:63) (cid:70) (cid:0) (cid:23) (cid:63) (cid:77) (cid:78) Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 1 3/12/08 7:28:20 AM Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 2 3/12/08 7:28:21 AM (cid:3)(cid:15)(cid:13)(cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:19)(cid:9)(cid:20)(cid:9)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:0)(cid:1)(cid:14)(cid:4) (cid:3)(cid:15)(cid:18)(cid:14)(cid:5)(cid:12)(cid:0)(cid:23)(cid:5)(cid:19)(cid:20) (cid:14)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:63)(cid:77)(cid:0)(cid:78)(cid:73)(cid:81)(cid:59)(cid:76)(cid:62)(cid:0)(cid:59)(cid:0)(cid:4)(cid:63)(cid:63)(cid:74)(cid:0)(cid:4)(cid:63)(cid:71)(cid:73)(cid:61)(cid:76)(cid:59)(cid:61)(cid:83)(cid:0) (cid:11)(cid:5)(cid:9)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:0)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:12)(cid:25)(cid:1)(cid:18)(cid:4) (cid:72)(cid:100)(cid:106)(cid:105)(cid:93)(cid:90)(cid:103)(cid:99)(cid:21)(cid:62)(cid:97)(cid:97)(cid:94)(cid:99)(cid:100)(cid:94)(cid:104)(cid:21)(cid:74)(cid:99)(cid:94)(cid:107)(cid:90)(cid:103)(cid:104)(cid:94)(cid:105)(cid:110)(cid:21)(cid:69)(cid:103)(cid:90)(cid:104)(cid:104)(cid:21)(cid:36)(cid:21)(cid:56)(cid:86)(cid:103)(cid:87)(cid:100)(cid:99)(cid:89)(cid:86)(cid:97)(cid:90) Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 3 3/12/08 7:28:21 AM Copyright © 2008 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 11 10 09 08 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gilyard, Keith, 1952– Composition and Cornel West : notes toward a deep democracy / Keith Gilyard. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13:978-0-8093-2854-3 (alk. paper) ISBN-10:0-8093-2854-2 (alk. paper) 1.African Americans—Intellectual life. 2.African American philosophy. 3.West, Cornel—Philosophy. 4.West, Cornel—Political and social views. 5.Democracy—United States. 6.Rhetoric— Philosophy. 7.Rhetoric—Political aspects—United States. 8.Rhetoric—Social aspects—United States. 9.English language—United States—Rhetoric. I. Title. E185.86.G4952008 305.896'073—dc22 2007033416 Printed on recycled paper. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for In- formation Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.∞ Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 4 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM In memory of Nefertiti Nicole Williams ((cid:16)(cid:24)(cid:23)(cid:21)(cid:0)–(cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:21)) outstanding and beautiful journalist Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 5 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 6 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM I give much weight to teaching in the academy and in the larger society. In fact, the priority I give to reading and speaking is closely related to the centrality of teaching in my intellectual vocation. In this sense, I am more a public teacher than public intellectual (a phrase I have never used to describe myself, though I have also never rejected it!), more interested in Socratic probing of the public than pronouncing blueprints for the public. —Cornel West, “Philosophy and the Funk of Life” If there is a master term in my text—and work—it is democracy. —Cornel West, “The Tragicomic and the Political in Christian Faith” Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 7 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 8 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM (cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:72)(cid:78)(cid:63)(cid:72)(cid:78)(cid:77) Acknowledgments xi 1. Flight West 1 2. The Roots of a Deep-Democratic Project 7 3. Socratic Commitment and Critical Literacy 27 4. Tracking Prophetic Witness 52 5. Tragicomic Hope in Democracy 77 6. Landing Song 99 Notes 123 Bibliography 137 Index 153 Gilyard Frontmatter.indd 9 3/12/08 7:28:22 AM