New Historical Criticism and Multi-Genre Writing

After Julie's Wiki presentation last week, I decided to read further about New Historical Critical Theory. As Tyson explains in Critical Theory Today, there is a distinct difference between what questions historians and new historians ask. "Traditional historians ask, 'What happened?' and 'What does the event tell us about history?' In contrast, new historicists ask, 'How has the event been interpreted' and "What do the interpretations tell us about the interpreters?'" (Tyson, 2006, p. 282).

Looking at this theory with a writing perspective in mind, led me to the topic of multigenre writing. I have recently been researching this topic as an concept for my Inquiry Paper, and I began making the connection between this topic and New Historical Critical Theory, after Katie made the suggestion in class. I was introduced to the topic of multigenre writing in the professional book club in which I am a member with Petra, Karen, and other former members of the National Writing Project. The group, which is comprised of a wide array of instructors, from a kindergarten teacher to a graduate school professor, meets periodically to discuss Calkin's The Art of Teaching Writing and share our own accomplishments and challenges with teaching writing in the classroom.

Based on the work of Romano (1995), "A multigenre research paper involves students in conducting research, and instead of writing in a traditional research paper format, they write in a range of genres. Each genre reveals one facet of the topic, and it can stand alone to make its own point" (Allen & Swistak, 2004, p. 224). This writing format, enables students to share their interpretations of an event using various forms including poetry, art, diary entries, journals, broadcasts, and newspaper articles. Allen & Swistak's (2004) research with multigenre writing is shared in Multigenre Research: The Power of Choice and Interpretation, which involved the collaboration between fifth grade students and preservice teachers. Both groups were responsible for writing a multi-genre paper. However, the preservice teachers also served as guides and writing role models for their middle school counterparts. View the Annotated Bibliography of Allen & Swistak and various others researchers of multigenre writing for further information.

During their research, the authors developed a new strategy referred to as FQI (Facts-Questions-Interpretations), which enabled students to chart facts on a topic, determine questions that need to be answered, and suggestions for interpretations through various genres. The article included an example based on the life of Eva Peron, otherwise known as "Evita". Through multigenre writing, Allen and Swistak's students were taught to interpret a historical event or an individual's life through various lenses and write about their research using genres that were appealing to them. This seems to relate to New Criticism and how specific interpretative questions form the foundation of an event or a person's life. "For new historians consider history a text that can be interpreted the same way literary critics interpret literary texts, and conversely, it considers literary texts cultural artifacts that can tell us something about the interplay of discourses, the web of social meanings, operating in the time and place in which those texts were written" (Tyson, 2006, p. 287). One of the key components that Tyson (2006) describes in New Historical Criticism is that the writing of history is not just facts, but on the interpretation. Therefore, students' multigenre research papers are just that-the interpretation of facts garnered through research, expressed and articulated in myriad ways that foster creativity and enable students to make instructional choices in their own assignments.

I am exploring the use of multigenre writing with preservice teachers, and I am hoping to use this strategy in future classrooms to advocate a greater sense of student choice and use of personal interpretations on pedagogical practices and theory in literacy methods classrooms.