Works Database
Primary works by Thomas Kent and secondary reception scholarship. Filter by type, source, and search across all fields.
Showing 56 of 56 works
Point-Driven Understanding: Pragmatic and Cognitive Dimensions of Literary Reading
Russell Hunt & Douglas Vipond — Poetics, vol. 13
Part of the St. Thomas University (New Brunswick) group that theorized reader-writer interaction and pedagogical methods accounting for the reader's role in constructing textual meaning.
Dialectics of Coherence: Toward an Integrative Theory
Louise Wetherbee Phelps — College English, vol. 47, no. 1
Among the earliest to critique 'process' as a terministic screen and call for a post-process paradigm; argued that process/product binary had become intellectually deleterious.
Writing and Knowing: Toward Redefining the Writing Process
James Reither — College English, vol. 47, no. 6
Argued that composition's 'micro-theory' of writing process needed expansion into a macro-theory encompassing social knowledge-making activities beyond individual cognition.
Interpretation and Genre: The Role of Generic Perception in the Study of Narrative Texts
Thomas Kent — Bucknell University Press / Associated University Presses
Kent's first book, a revised version of his PhD dissertation from Purdue University. Applies information-theory paradigms to the conventions of dime novels and traces their transmutations in classic texts by Mark Twain and Stephen Crane.
The Ecology of Writing
Marilyn Cooper — College English, vol. 48, no. 1
Conceptual precursor of postprocess inventional thought; argues against internalist, human-centered models of writing in favor of ecological systems.
The Structure of Written Communication: Studies in Reciprocity between Writers and Readers
Martin Nystrand — Academic Press
Theorized writing as social interaction and readers as co-constructors of meaning — a key intellectual parallel to Kent's Davidsonian hermeneutics.
Competing Theories of Process: A Critique and a Proposal
Lester Faigley — College English, vol. 48, no. 6
Mapped competing theoretical traditions within process (expressive, cognitive, social) and identified the social turn that would lead toward postprocess thinking.
Invention as a Social Act
Karen Burke LeFevre — Southern Illinois University Press
Reframes rhetorical invention from individual cognitive act to social process; a key precursor text in the postprocess inventional tradition.
Beyond System: The Rhetoric of Paralogy
Thomas Kent — College English, vol. 51, pp. 492–507
Foundational journal article introducing Kent's concept of paralogy as an alternative to systematic approaches to rhetoric, drawing on Lyotard and Davidson.
Paralogic Hermeneutics and the Possibilities of Rhetoric
Thomas Kent — Rhetoric Review, vol. 8, no. 1
Early formulation of Kent's paralogic account of rhetoric; describes communication as hermeneutic guessing rather than rule-following. Foundation for the 1993 book.
On the Very Idea of a Discourse Community
Thomas Kent — College Composition and Communication, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 425–445
Challenges the concept of discourse communities by drawing on Davidson's critique of conceptual schemes. Argues that writing cannot be explained by community-internal rules or conventions.
Paralogic Rhetoric: A Theory of Communicative Interaction
Thomas Kent — Bucknell University Press / Associated University Presses
Major primary monograph; develops communicative interaction from Davidsonian triangulation, hermeneutic guesswork, anti-systematic rhetoric, and critique of codified writing process. Winner of the 1995 CCCC Outstanding Book Award. Draws on Davidson, Rorty, Derrida, Lyotard, and Bakhtin.
Professional Communication: The Social Perspective (co-edited with Charlotte Thralls)
Nancy Roundy Blyler — SAGE Publications
Kent contributed the chapter 'Formalism, Social Construction, and Interpretive Authority' to this volume co-edited by Blyler and Thralls.
Interdisciplinary Research and Disciplinary Toleration: A Reply to Kitty Locker
Thomas Kent — Journal of Business Communication, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 153–155
Argues for interdisciplinary openness in business and technical communication scholarship, advocating for cross-disciplinary rhetorical inquiry.
Review of Paralogic Rhetoric
Reed Way Dasenbrock — Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 3/4
Key early interpretation of Kent's work before it was called postprocess; identified two directions: reintegrating reading/writing theories, and writing in the disciplines.
Literacy, Ideology, and Dialogue
Irene Ward — SUNY Press
Introduced the unhyphenated term 'postprocess' and applied it specifically to Kent's work — the first scholar to name the movement.
Toward a Post-Process Pedagogy
Anthony Paré — Unknown venue (early usage of hyphenated post-process)
One of the first to use the term 'post-process' (hyphenated); drew on the Canadian tradition of Hunt, Vipond, and Reither to articulate pedagogical methods.
Rhetoric and metaphor in the emergence of modern physics
R. D. Johnson — ProQuest dissertation
Uses Kent to theorize the relationship between rhetoric and metaphor, connecting Kent's Davidsonian account of communicative interaction to the emergence of scientific discourse.
Guessing Games: Envisioning Audience for Dialogic Pedagogies
Julie Drew — Composition Studies
Uses Kent's paralogic view to rethink audience as dialogic, uncertain, and inferential rather than a stable entity writers can fully know in advance.
The Consequences of Theory for the Practice of Writing
Thomas Kent — Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition (ed. Gary A. Olson & Todd W. Taylor, SUNY Press)
Explores the relationship between postprocess theoretical commitments and practical writing instruction, extending Kent's argument about the limits of codifiable pedagogy.
Beyond dichotomy: Toward a theory of divergence in composition studies
Anis S. Bawarshi — JAC
Credits Kent with introducing externalist/Davidsonian thinking into composition pedagogy and uses him to complicate dichotomies in composition theory.
Yin/yang principle and the relevance of externalism and paralogic rhetoric to intercultural communication
R. Yuan — Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Applies Davidson's externalism and Kent's paralogic rhetoric to intercultural communication, extending Kent beyond composition into technical/business communication.
Post-Process Theory: Beyond the Writing-Process Paradigm
Thomas Kent, ed. — Southern Illinois University Press
Canonical edited collection naming and consolidating postprocess theory. Contributors include Nancy Blyler, Barbara Couture, Sidney Dobrin, Joseph Petraglia, Gary Olson, David Russell, and others. Frequently cited as the field-defining source for the 'postprocess' turn.
Finitude's Clamor: Or, Notes toward a Communitarian Literacy
Diane D. Davis — College Composition & Communication
Engages Kent's Davidson/Rorty-informed critique of conventional communication models while developing a communitarian account of literacy and rhetoric.
Of pre- and post-process: Reviews and ruminations
Richard Fulkerson — JAC
Offers a major early review/critique of postprocess theory; takes up Kent's claim that writing cannot be taught as a system and evaluates its pedagogical consequences.
Paralogic Rhetoric: An Overview
Thomas Kent — Rhetoric and Composition as Intellectual Work (ed. Gary A. Olson)
Condenses Kent's paralogic/postprocess claims, including the limits of teachable systems and the situated nature of discourse production.
The substance of style: Invention, arrangement, and paralogic rhetoric in the composition classroom
D. C. Cautrell — ProQuest dissertation
Uses Kent's paralogic rhetoric as a classroom-oriented theory for invention, arrangement, and style, translating Kent's anti-systematic theory into composition pedagogy.
Towards a hermeneutic understanding of programming languages
Clay Spinuzzi — Technical communication / UT repository
Extends Kent's Davidsonian paralogic rhetoric to programming languages, using hermeneutic interaction to understand code and technical communication.
Post-Process 'Pedagogy': A Philosophical Exercise
Lee-Ann M. Kastman Breuch — JAC, vol. 22, no. 1
Major pedagogical interpretation of Kent's postprocess theory; traces how postprocess scholars applied postmodern theory to complicate objective approaches to writing.
The Private, the Public, and the Published: Reconciling Private Lives and Public Rhetoric
Barbara Couture & Thomas Kent, eds. — Utah State University Press
Co-edited collection exploring the tensions between private experience and public discourse; extends postprocess commitments into questions of privacy, publicity, and rhetorical agency.
Playing to the tune of electracy: From post-process to a pedagogy otherwise
Sarah J. Arroyo — JAC
Places Kent in dialogue with Gary Olson, Victor Vitanza, and electracy, using Kent as one pole of postprocess theory while pushing toward alternative pedagogy.
The post-process movement in rhetoric and composition: A philosophical hermeneutic reading of being-in-the-world with others
M. A. R. M. Elgeddawy — ProQuest dissertation
Treats Kent as a central theorist of the postprocess movement and examines his externalist/Davidsonian commitments through philosophical hermeneutics.
The 'Remapping' of Professional Writing
Thomas Kent — Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 12–14
Reflects on the evolution of professional writing as a field, published during Kent's tenure as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University.
Networked Process: Dissolving Boundaries of Process and Post-Process
H. Foster — Book
Presents Kent's theory as a key articulation of postprocess, then recasts process/postprocess through networks and disciplinarity.
Modern writers, modernist problems: A rhetorical hermeneutic approach to the discourses of Anglo-American modernism
M. M. Heard — ProQuest dissertation
Uses Kent's 'hermeneutic guesswork' and postprocess rhetoric to frame literary/modernist discourse as interpretive, situated, and non-algorithmic.
A Counter-History of Composition: Toward Methodologies of Complexity
Byron Hawk — University of Pittsburgh Press
Reassembles postprocess toward a posthuman theory of public rhetoric; extends Kent's anti-systematic view through complexity theory and vitalism.
What Should We Do with Postprocess Theory?
Matthew Heard — Pedagogy
Identifies Kent as a leading postprocess scholar and asks how paralogic rhetoric can be taught or used pedagogically without becoming a prescriptive system.
Mapping a Post-Process Dialogics for the Writing Classroom as Public
E. Donnelli — University of Kansas repository
Uses Kent to argue that writing cannot be reduced to a closed process and develops a dialogic/public classroom model from postprocess assumptions.
Weblog writing and post-process ecocomposition theory in secondary English instruction
J. R. Peterson — ProQuest dissertation
Combines Kent with ecocomposition and digital writing, treating weblog writing as situated discourse shaped by writer, reader, and environment.
Reassembling Postprocess
Byron Hawk — Beyond Postprocess
Reorients postprocess away from Kent's initial paralogic formulation toward assemblage and posthuman/material rhetorics.
Beyond Postprocess (editors)
Sidney I. Dobrin, Jeff Rice, and Michael Vastola — Utah State University Press
Kent wrote the preface ('Righting Writing') to this collection that extended postprocess into new media, posthumanism, and digital writing. Key next-generation collection.
Cutting the edge of the will to truth; Or, how post-process pedagogy is biting its own tail
D. Kopp — JAC
Critiques postprocess pedagogy and locates Kent with Victor Vitanza as central figures in the 1990s postprocess turn.
Re-articulating postprocess: Affect, neuroscience, and institutional discourse
J. R. Talbot — ProQuest dissertation
Rearticulates Kent's paralogic rhetoric through affect, neuroscience, and institutional discourse, challenging simplistic anti-process readings.
Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunements of Rhetorical Being
Thomas Rickert — University of Pittsburgh Press
Synthesizes postprocess, posthuman, and ecological rhetoric into 'ambience' — extends Kent's anti-systematic view into the digital age of ubiquitous computing.
After Pedagogy: The Experience of Teaching
Paul Lynch — NCTE
Engages Kent's postprocess claim about the unteachability of writing; explores what teaching looks like 'after' prescriptive pedagogy through hermeneutic experience.
Composing place
S. M. Pedersen — Oklahoma State University repository / ProQuest
Uses Kent's Davidsonian paralogic rhetoric as part of a rhetorical frame for place, situated composing, and new rhetoric contexts.
Around 1986: The externalization of cognition and the emergence of postprocess invention
K. M. Lotier — College Composition & Communication
Historicizes the emergence of postprocess invention and externalized cognition; positions Kent's Davidsonian externalism as central to the intellectual history.
Beyond Words: A Post-Process Business Writing Pedagogy
A. M. Lloyd — University of Maryland repository / ProQuest
Adapts Kent's postprocess premise that writing is paralogic and non-systemic to business writing pedagogy.
Resounding the Rhetorical: Composition as a Quasi-Object
Byron Hawk — Book
Uses Kent as a major historical reference point, but reorients postprocess through Latour, quasi-objects, and material/rhetorical networks.
The Animal Who Writes: A Posthumanist Composition
Marilyn M. Cooper — Book
Uses Kent's postprocess emphasis that writing is not a codifiable process as a bridge into posthumanist composition theory.
Thomas Kent's Paralogic Rhetoric as a Framework for Analyzing Corporate Social Responsibility Discourse
D. E. Penner — University of Texas at Tyler thesis/repository
Makes Kent the central framework for analyzing CSR discourse, applying paralogic rhetoric to organizational ethics, reception, and public communication.
Postprocess Postmortem
J. Tham — Composition Studies
Revisits the scholarship surrounding Kent's Paralogic Rhetoric and reassesses its afterlife in composition, audience theory, transfer, public rhetoric, and genre studies.
Blocks World
E. C. Perry — University of Georgia / ProQuest
Mentions postprocess scholars such as Kent while discussing composition, constraint, and artificial intelligence as writing changes under computational systems.
Post-Process but Not Post-Writing: Large Language Models and a Future for Composition Pedagogy
S. S. Graham — Composition Studies / ERIC
Brings Kent-era postprocess pedagogy directly into debates about AI/LLMs, arguing that composition already has a conceptual toolkit for AI-mediated writing.
后过程写作的概念内涵, 演进历程与当代启示 [Concept, evolution, and contemporary implications of postprocess writing]
Li Xi — Writing/Xiezuo
Recent Chinese-language reception of postprocess writing that names Thomas Kent and Sid Dobrin, suggesting international/contemporary uptake of postprocess theory.
Distributing Composition: Rhetorical Agency in First-Year Writing
Elizabeth Novotny — Michigan Technological University (Dissertation)
Engages distributed and rhetorical agency in first-year writing, drawing on postprocess principles of writing as situated, public, and interpretive.