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Toward a Relational Theory of Invention

LaVecchia, Christina M.

Abstract Details

2017, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature.
Toward a Relational Theory of Invention argues that rhetorical invention— the constellation of practices and theories involved in discovering or gathering ideas —can be productively theorized as relational. Rather than being concerned with origins, a relational invention is a means of relating to others and to the world; a relational invention steps away from the idea that writing is controlled by humans, as well as from the elision of human agency, and instead envisions agency as distributed amongst an assemblage of both human and nonhuman actors, like composers, texts, objects, feelings, and sensations. A relational approach to invention thus helps writers to dwell longer in process—and more closely attunes invention to potentiality and becoming—because it as an emergent method of response, in which the composing subject is adapting to and interacting with others in an entangled network. First I review literature on invention, primarily focusing on work on the teaching of writing, arguing that field conversations have characterized invention as either a private, interior process or as a process that is socially constructed and distributed. To remedy this binary, I work to recover moments in formative field scholarship that acknowledge the contributions that material, environmental, and affective agents (and their interactions) make to invention, moments that have been erased by dominant field narratives. Then, I offer three characteristics of relational invention—(1) networked mediation, (2) inviting rhetorics, and (3) complex and interactive systems—and develop a discussion that associates relational invention with theoretical concepts from contemporary theoretical work, primarily in writing ecologies, affect, and new materialism, in order to construct a vision of invention that is dynamic, emergent, and responsive. Finally, I turn to a narrative theory analysis of video-recorded interviews gathered in 2013 at Ohio State’s Digital Media and Composing Institute. The stories participants told about their invention experiences in composing a video project, the Concept in 60, discussed among other concerns the active influences that emotions, time constraints, and participants’ responses to material objects played. My study demonstrates that invention narratives, which capture the nuances of composing in situ, are needed in writing classrooms—where students often encounter invention as rote activities or heuristics that conceal its dynamic making functions. Ultimately, I argue that representing the messy, nonlinear, and nonrational lived realities of invention can enable writers to adapt to new situations, materials, and modes—and to the complex nature of the everyday world within which writing takes place.
Laura Micciche, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Christopher Carter, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Russell Durst, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
179 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • LaVecchia, C. M. (2017). Toward a Relational Theory of Invention [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1529330376530125

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • LaVecchia, Christina. Toward a Relational Theory of Invention. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1529330376530125.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • LaVecchia, Christina. "Toward a Relational Theory of Invention." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1529330376530125

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)