@article {1147, title = {The Author-Function, The Genre Function, and The Rhetoric of Scholarly Webtexts}, journal = {Computers and Composition}, volume = {28}, year = {2011}, pages = {145-159}, chapter = {145}, abstract = {

In this article, I compare Michel Foucault\&$\#$39;s (1994) author-function and Anis Bawarshi\&$\#$39;s (2000) genre function as explanations for the use, categorization, and value of scholarly webtexts. I focus much of my analysis on Anne Frances Wysocki\&$\#$39;s (2002) \“A Bookling Monument\” because it is explicitly designed to destabilize our reading practices. I also situate Wysocki\&$\#$39;s webtext along a spectrum with Charles Lowe\&$\#$39;s (2004) \“Copyright, Access, and Digital Texts\” and Collin Gifford Brooke\&$\#$39;s (2002) \“Perspective: Notes Toward the Remediation of Style.\” In using the author-function and the genre function as lenses on these pieces, I aim to articulate multiple possible modes of being for scholarly webtexts and their users. In the process, I illustrate the ways these concepts speak to the status and social function of authorial ownership and originality; multimodal complexity; and formal reflexivity. Ultimately, I argue that bringing traditional concepts like authorship and genre to bear on scholarly webtexts not only reveals the values of the Computers and Writing community but also presents a unique opportunity to continue testing the uses and limits of our rhetorical theories.

}, author = {Christopher Basgier} }