Writing in Disguise Academic Life in Subordination

Writing in Disguise is a series of increasingly personal essays that both discuss and dramatize through firsthand experience the significance of subordination in academic life, in terms of issues and structures but above all in terms of texts. Some are written: memos, rejection letters, even resignation letters. Some are not: anecdotes, protests, jokes, parodies.

All of these texts have in common the imperative of disguise, represented as the most crucial consequence of dominant discourse, within which subordination might speak only by knowing its place, and write only by producing hidden transcripts.

Caustic, pointed, satiric, Writing in Disguise is an engaging critique of aspects of academia involving the misuse, misappropriation, and misappreciation of verbal communication in its many guises.

Caesar (English, Clarion Univ., Pennsylvania) uses the concept of writing to clarify major issues of truth and conformity in the university community. Academic novels, sexual harassment, teaching, dissertation advisers?all are discussed in the context of the relationships of power and subjugation, and the nature of rejection letters and memos is also explained. Caesar's last chapter, on his resignation letters, neatly sums up his ideas. The ideas presented here also offer insights into the larger world of civic and bureaucratic discourse. This harsh, biting, and fascinating view of teaching and writing in the academy is as good as a funny academy novel; recommended for all academic libraries.?Gene Shaw, NYPL
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