Rhetorical Responsiveness: Responding to Literacy Narratives as Teachers of Composition - by Cynthia L. Selfe and the DALN Consortium
A short example of this point will suffice: in the DALN, contributors who might be described elsewhere as GLBT can tag their narratives in a wide variety of ways—gay, trans, lgbt, lesbian, bi—reflecting their own particular understanding of sexuality and orientation that derives from their own situated position. In fact, a search of the DALN will yield not an ostensibly complete and comprehensive listing of narratives by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual contributors, but, rather, eight narratives with the keyword “gay,” none with the tag “glbt,” and three completely different narratives with the tag “transsexual.” In such a collection, the metadata that individuals attach to their narratives becomes itself an object of interest and a cultural artifact created by users themselves. By studying this metadata, scholars can trace when and how individuals identify their orientation and themselves.
The DALN, in an effort to keep the archive open enough for most comers, also makes no effort to control the modality of narratives, which can be audio, video, print, or hybrid compositions; nor does it limit the length of narratives—which range from less than two minutes to more than an hour. In addition, the DALN does not determine the conditions under which narratives are contributed—for instance, such narratives are contributed in response to assignments in composition classes, as contributions at conferences, as stories volunteered on the street, as stories added by particular communities committed to preserving history. The DALN, for example, has collections built around deaf and hard of hearing contributors, social activists, Asperigians, citizens of Black Columbus, Black women academics, members of the burlesque community, and students in composition courses at schools from across the country.