Addresses the question of whether the personal essay is "democratic." Suggests three ways in which the personal essay can be integrated into a collaborative writing pedagogy. (RS)

In recent years the High Romantic concept of the solitary author has been intensely challenged. Compositionists and various theorists have deconstructed the concept of isolated authorship and critiqued the Romantic notion of individual genius. Meanwhile, the reconstruction of the female literary tradition introduced the question of gender and…

Many compositionists correctly charge Romanticism with conveying the iconography of the solitary writer and with embedding that image in modern ideology. There can be little doubt that numerous Romantic texts continue to exalt and signify the concept of the lonely genius and the self-contained text. Romantic masterpieces have contributed to the…