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Modes of address

jhunter's picture

In Ellsworth's article, the networks of power in pedagogical relationships are compared to chocolate bands in a marble cake.  I found myself thinking about what exactly Ellsworth meant by power in her article and in this example.  Was she speaking of a Foucault-ian concept of discursive power within which pedagogy generated its own discussions of different enmeshed power relationships?  If so, then modes of address don't merely constitute these relationships but also the spaces in which and through which people communicate.  I think that the Internet, particularly chatrooms, are an interesting mode of address.  Even on this discussion board, I can never be quite certain about everyone's representations, and, though I'm writing for my fellow class participants, our pedagogical relationship is not exactly as deeply personal as Ellsworth describes it in her essay.  My mode of address may be specific to our class in this context, but I have to recognize that anyone with access to a computer can read my words.  I'm representing myself for a contact zone that is essentially constructed of the entire world.

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