Frameworks for Failure

In the wake of the influential 2011 Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, this article extends the conversation along two related tracks: historical and theoretical. We situate the Framework historically with respect to the philosophies and cultural pressures behind the “habits of mind” structure so central to the text. We then read success against queer theory's recent turn to negative emotion, notably in Ahmed's The Promise of Happiness, Berlant's Cruel Optimism, and Halberstam's Queer Art of Failure. Our goal is to think about how the Framework can be understood with respect to a longer social turn in writing studies.