This paper is conceived as an extended reflection on what has passed for a materialist epistemology--which may be one way to understand cultural work--in English Studies. Rather than providing any final answers to the questions of what the praxis says about the theory, the paper first examines the origin of the humanistic literary text and then examines one of composition's responses to that origin. Finally, it suggests some questions that might govern composition's future in the next millennium. (Contains 11 references.) (NKA)
