Archives and Feelings

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You need not answer all of these questions, but your essay should offer some kind of response to their spirit.

Does the word count include bibliography?

Yes!

Let’s talk about this in class, but I am thinking it might make most sense to share the drafts by email as word documents –– it will be easier for people to print them out or use track changes.

I don’t know the text — but perhaps also the Swede could be part of a structure of feeling antagonistic to the other men’s activities. He might not realize that there is a larger-than-individual element to his responses, but Williams might argue that there is.

“Critical universes”

I like your connection between Gramsci and Freire!

Sedgwick connects the hermeneutic of suspicion to contemporary academic theory, and you highlight an important aspect of her work with the question of knowledge’s “truth” being irrelevant. Important to note that the idea of “hermeneutics of suspicion” is an old one, though, used by Ricoeur to talk about Freud and Nietzche.

Many of the readings we are doing this semester treat “humanism” as a suspect category because humanist thought has been so implicated in histories of racism and empire, but your response shows how it can be a crucial concept for developing thought and pedagogy in a postcolonial context.

This reads like a hybrid of a teaching philosophy and the questions I asked you, though it definitely works as an effective answer to those! The integration of Gramsci and Freire is very good. I like your comments about assessment, too, and your insight that we can’t just tell students those things don’t matter and expect them to believe us. Like Megha, I am curious about the concrete and practical ways your ideas might play out in the classroom — have you had the opportunity to try them out yet?

“Will our sermons only be considered in the context of “This is how we talk and think in English class,” but the minute they step outside of the classroom revert to their ingrained value systems”

– Great and terrifying question, Lauren! I think that Sedwick’s focus on affect might lead us into a  bit of an answer… In as much as if we really learn to embody a certain way of thinking and being for English class, it’s going to bleed out into the ways we embody the rest of our lives. Then again, that’s also going to be true for the way we might learn to embody a certain way of thinking and being in attending a conservative church, say––or math class, for that matter…

Great integration of Gramsci, Moten and Harney and Ferguson’s critical reflections on the structure of the university in this paragraph.

(Also, my English 121 is structured around the idea of the “machine” and I try to get the students to look at the machinery of various social institutions, so reading this was a moment of fascinating synergy between my two classes!)

This looks great, Jaclyn — but could you try separating the post into paragraphs (just hit return) so that we wil be able to comment on individual parts of it? Thanks!

This looks great, but can you go in and make sure each new paragraph is registered as a new paragraph, so that the commenting system will work to best effect? Just to go “edit post” and hit return before each paragraph. Thanks!

What do we gain by using the term labor––why might it be important to recognize what we do as *work*?

I think this is precisely Gramsci’s point — the factory worker and the sculptor may both be intellectuals or artists, but only one has the *function in society* ––the class position, the privilege––that makes it his or her assigned role. Just as it no doubt requires a certain class status or aspiration to see oneself as able to choose a social function or calling.

Your challenge to the depressive force of our readings makes me think of Sedgwick in “Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading.” I think you are making a powerful and convincing argument for a reparative approach to academic labor and scholarly agency here.

Foucault is not a new historicist, at least not in the way that I understand the term. His ideas are not in opposition to Benjamin’s, for both are concerned with power and materiality; they simply unfold their understanding of these ideas in a different way. Let’s talk about this before our next class!

I enjoyed seeing the connections between this and your work from the summer!

You don’t quite come right out and say it, but what you’re doing here is putting the question of class front and center within Halberstam and Freeman’s work. To what extent is straight time, success, chrononormativity also driven by middle-class aspirational norms and temporalities? And what happens when people are queered by class but not by other means (I think Halberstam answers this a bit in the discussion of Trainspotting)? It isn’t simple.

Coming back to this, I’m thinking about whether this discussion of taste might be interestingly put in the kind of terms Mel Chen uses in her discussion of the boy licking the train…

Another possible citation for you, if you pursue this, might be Siane Ngai’s Ugly Feelings, which deals with various literary affects––and the sizeable subdiscipline of food studies, about which I know relatively little but which seems extremely interesting.

This is a bit of an incendiary comment, Kamal! You have often made comments in class that highlight postcolonial and feminist perspectives. It sounds to me as if this comment is stating that Arab American women ought not to speak from these perspectives that you are studying––but I think I might be misunderstanding you.

” sci-fi and fantasy rather than ethnic literature”

– This is by no means a binary opposition! I know you know that; still, it seemed important to say so.

Great points here — we don’t need to give up on what was meaningful about more canonical archives in order to expand to new ones! The last point you make is really important as well, I think; who are we teaching for and are we giving them something they will be able to take away?

These are constant points of contention in Literature departments too, in my experience, Janelle. I got my PhD from a department that had no distribution requirements and allowed up to half of our coursework to be taken outside the department (I did half mine in American Studies and Film), and faculty and some students often complained that we were not learning enough of the English literature canon. Perhaps the main role of canons is to provoke arguments…

This is a lovely description of their relationship, and I appreciate Lauren’s connection of it to composition research, too. I’ll confess that, though I’ve yet to get around to watching Babylon 5, I know about Londo and G’Kar because there is an archive of slash fan fiction in which they and their relationship appears. This is now the second comment I have left citing slash fan culture today; the first time this particular archive has entered my teaching at IUP, I think. Interesting!

Good point, Menia. We may want to raise the ghost of Foucault here! Do we perhaps co-create the disciplinary idea of the canon when we articulate our sense of what the not-so-easily-definable authorities would have to say about it?

I love this idea, Janelle, and your willingness to push it forward into the “super scary” realm — though Lauren’s point is well made too! Failing (a class, out of college, whatever) varies so much in the dangers it signifies and the level of terror it involves, depending on who it is happening to; partly because of the economic situation we are currently in, but also because of expectations, support structures, etc. Sometimes the acceptance or expectation of failure might be what a student needs to overcome…

I don’t know this book at all — bad science fiction scholar! I shall try to read it now, though. Our crashing spaceship is occupied by humans, yes?

Have you read Wendy Pearson’s work on queer theory and science fiction? She connects “queer” to “cognitive estrangement” in ways I think you would find exciting.

I hope you put this paragraph in your statement of teaching philosophy…

Giving your students space to question doesn’t necessarily mean letting go of classroom authority, either! There’s a fine line to draw sometimes; you want them to show up and do the reading, after all. But it’s clear to me that you are on track to manage it well.

I would say to all of you: don’t assume there is no place in the academy for Harry Potter studies! Many scholars have written about “low” culture, children’s books (children’s literature is a subfield as well) and fan culture (including me, on the last one). My one caution would be that it’s important  to know that popular culture studies is a field (actually several fields…) of its own––the best way to bring up Harry Potter in a job interview would be to explain how you could use it in your teaching, whether in a popular culture focused class or as a way in to some other topic.

For what it’s worth, I believe that you are correct too, Matthew. But it’s always going to vary depending on where you are applying, who you are, and how you market yourself…

For what it’s worth, I believe that you are correct too, Matthew. But it’s always going to vary depending on where you are applying, who you are, and how you market yourself…

What about the Harry Potter unauthorized archive — the work that is very much outside the “major corporation”? I’m thinking primarily of slash fan fiction, which is my own main point of engagement with Harry Potter fandom, but there are many examples of fan communities creating archives that the corporate owners of the text would prefer to stamp out…

I wonder whether Sedgwick’s discussion of her own heterosexual orientation, in relation to her queer studies work, might make sense to you. She often writes about her engagement with queer political movements, too; maybe an avenue to highlight in those teaching philosophies that won’t bring it all down to identity?

Thank you for sharing your personal relation to your work and to the double-edged sword of identity politics––empowering sometimes, but often painfully exclusionary…

You’re welcome. 😉

I wanted to keep the possibilities open… Seems to be working out okay!

For what it’s worth, I spent some of my childhood with my grandparents in their Spiritualist church, where congregants communicated with the spirits of the dead. I think their are stranger and not so rational experiences lying behind many of our composed intellectual exteriors here in the academic world…

And yet the text you loved most was Halberstam’s Queer Art of Failure, which is all about valuing the negative. There’s something interesting here…

Thank you for taking the hard, vulnerable path path sharing these glimpses into the life that has brought you here.

Thank you for sharing this personal narrative, Kamal –– I enjoyed learning more about where you are coming from. I find myself wondering about the relationship between colonial histories and the authoritative model of knowledge production; what does it mean that it was when you went to the imperial metropoles you found what Freire describes as decolonial knowledge? If you expand on this piece, I’d love to read your thoughts about that…

Courageous and beautiful, Lauren. Thank you for sharing this.

I was thinking about academia’s equivalent of those mirrors as I was reading this; the finely polished CV, the grades, maybe even the teaching evals. It’s a convincing comparison in its way… though not the only way to live in academia, I hope.

Not to be pedantic, but psychology and psychiatry may both have their roots in Freud, but they diverge in the present day; psychiatry is the realm of diagnoses and pharmaceutical treatments, while psychology can include those but also the less end-oriented conversational therapies that we see Bechdel undergo. Psychoanalysis (which is what you are critiquing, I think) is a subfield of psychology…

My earlier comment about psychiatry/psychotherapy seems a bit crude given the honesty, nuance, and depth of this piece of writing as it develops, and yet this paragraph makes me think about it too: perhaps the psychiatric is more easily incorporated into American culture than the therapeutic focus on, as you say in the next paragraph, change in the self. And there is clearly something very gendered in that disctinction too.

I admire your honesty and vulnerability in writing this, Sheila, and in bringing so eloquently into the light the personal aspects that underlie your experience (as they do all of our experiences) in the class.

It does make me think of Bechdel, and of many queer memoirists’ recollections of unruly childhoods (maybe queer childhood is a way of being unrelated to sexual identity?)

Thank you! I am glad you found it useful.

Have you read much Donna Haraway yet? I think you might find a lot of what you are seeking in her never-binary entanglements of human and nonhuman. I’ll bring a book Tuesday that I think you might like.

I would never have thought that these works would have special relevance to Arab-Muslim culture! I am excited to hear that they resonated for you and look forward to learning more…

How do you see the symptoms of Arab public depression? Cvetkovich talks about shared feelings of hopelessness about political change––do you see examples of that in your home? And what role, if any, does the Arab community’s relationship with other global powers (I am thinking of the west and the history of colonialism as well as of US relations to Arab countries) have on Arab political depression?

There’s quite a lot of research exploring the ways that queer sexualities have existed and continue to exist in the Arab world — here is one, though it’s a few years old: http://books.google.com/books?id=hQuHFPKp8L0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

What kinds of responses are you likely to receive when you work to do this? Are any of your colleagues likely to be sympathetic?

Fascinating material, Kamal! I would be excited if you chose to expand this for the revision assignment; I would love to hear about specific examples you’d use (or have used in the past), and what kind of response you think you might get from your students.

The phrase “critical optimism” pops into my mind as you describe your sunny disposition, Matthew. As well as the classic quote from Gramsci, where he says that critical intellectuals must maintain “pessimism of the intellect” –– ie the ability to look clearly at all that is wrong with the world –– combined with “optimism of the will” ie the belief that we can change it.

I’d like to see you further unpack “the mainstream view of academia” here…

Oh, here it is! And difficult to argue with… I think of Cvetkovich’s depression, with its reminder that even making it through with the most success possible is no guarantee…

Good point about this course! And the more general one, too; it’s very true that there seems to be something more convincing, somehow, about unhappy narratives –– despite the cultural pressure to seek happiness that Sarah Ahmed unpacked.

It’s interesting that this hasn’t always been the case –– sad endings and gory deaths are common in earlier fairy and folk tales for children.

I am excited to hear about the project!

So is it all in what you do with your failures, maybe?

“a brighter tomorrow for our children” — if you are going to say that, at some point you will have to read and respond to (by no means agreeing with) Lee Edelman’s No Future…

Good summation of Ahmed, but I’d like you to unpack what is going on with “homosexual acts” here. Do you mean sex acts? Are those the same thing as queer ways of being (I’d say no, though they certainly have a lot to do with one another…). What about the difference between “queer” and “homosexual”? (I can give you some quick reading material if you feel uncertain about that distinction!

Must someone who has same-sex desires and lives a heterosexual life be “passing”? What if their identity is more complex, or unsettled, such that the meanings of their desire cannot easily be ascertained? Must the homosexual and heterosexual “lifestyles” be separate?

I sense Eve Sedgwick’s Between Men and Epistemology of the Closet in this paragraph –– yes? Have you read much recent work in black queer studies? You might find some useful models there to deepen and complicate your triangle. https://www.dukeupress.edu/Black-Queer-Studies/

I’m curious about your reasoning for using “homosexual” as your primary term rather than gay, queer, LGBT and so forth!

I’m curious about the relative ‘affectivity’ of our readings for you… assuming you are referring to how they made you feel! I like your tripartite explanation of things we must be prepared for in engaging  scholarship affectively.

Lovely image of the bones turned to dust… very decadent! I think that what you are saying is that in your own historical work you hope to engage an archaeology not only of that which is preserved but of that which is lost, that which can only be affectively reconstructed… Your version of Benjamin’s catching hold of a memory at a moment of danger. Am I right?

“One important concept I’ve taken from this course so far is that very few things, especially in domestic spaces, are off limits for social critique.  Crafting, animated films, even one’s therapy sessions are ripe with politics that can uphold hegemonic ideology or create space for transformative ways of life because they are the very place that appears out of reach of politics.”

I love this summary of the stakes shared across so many texts in the course!

Thanks for this point –– it is a critique I will bear in mind, as I am afraid I have certainly been one of those professors!

Gramsci’s idea of the organic intellectual is of one who is part of the subaltern group committed to opposing and transforming the social order first; intellectual work is developed with and for the group, rather than in an institution outside of it. So Nafisi’s commitment to the interests of women, which goes beyond her institutional role, might be a kind of organic intellectual work. The distinction between organic and traditional intellectual often doesn’t fit neatly onto the real world, though…

Great articulation of the temporality of the classroom.

And, regarding the university as machine, Ferguson would have it even more strongly: he would say that the liberal multiculturalist concern for development of identities is part and parcel of the university as machinery of capital, since it refocuses students’ energies on individual identity rather than the potential for redistribution of resources.

Hi Matt!

I really love this paragraph, and I think it is important to highlight one of the words you used here: humble. It reminds me of one of the quotes Sedgwick uses toward the end of our reading in which she is citing Bronson’s teaching philosophy where:

“a teacher never should forget that the mind he is directing, may be on a larger scale than his own; that its sensibilities may be deeper, tenderer, wider; that its imagination may be infinitely more rapid; that its intellectual power or proportioning and reasoning may be more powerful; and he should ever have the humility to feel himself at times in the place of the child” (162).

We never really touched upon this in class, but the emphasis you mention about humility as a teacher-scholar seems to be something Sedgwick values as well.  Being a humble individual, especially in front of a classroom of thinkers, is something that breeds this sense of helping others, but from Sedgwick’s example, it is reciprocal in nature.

Yes, Menia, I full-heartedly agree with what you say here when there are serious challenges that face higher ed today.  I am currently working on a second Master’s degree in higher education, and what I have learned so far in this program has really helped me come to terms with my current place as an educator working in the field of higher ed.  One of the most glaring areas of concern, not only for myself, but for others in higher ed as well, is the decreased value of intellectual freedom as faculty members.  I also think you are correct in that as a faculty member, I have a responsibility to fight for our intellectual freedoms!  I am still learning, however, how to accomplish this.  Thanks for sharing your insights!

Accepting failure is a huge problem for us because you are right, our “programming” dictates anything but falling into such a hole.  Still, our failures are inevitably a part of us, and there is no denying that.  While some failures haunt us more than others, we do our best to make sure that we stay as far away from making those same mistakes, despite what we have come to learn from them.

I find your statement about your own place within academic scholarship as categorized as “failed…” what makes you say this?  Maybe it is because our profession of teaching in higher ed is not as mainstream as some other professions?

Maybe if more works such as Babylon 5 were included in the canon, students would be more receptive to writing classes.  I feel like a lot of times we have our students write about things they are unable to relate to, which ultimately turns them off to writing.  Instead, we should be allowing our students to write about things that have a concrete relevance to their own academic pursuits and interests.      

I love what you say here, Janelle!  It is so challenging to see students fail when we know they are capable of doing the work if they only truly put forth the effort.  I feel this sentiment most strongly this week because I had to submit midterm grades for several of my classes.  I only gave out three Fs, but they are still symbols of failure, both on my part as their instructor and as their role as student.  Grades are just another way of keeping that concept of failure in check, I suppose.

I like how you specify between L/literature here because a lot of times I feel as though those of us who have a lot of experience in the classics (Literature) try to down-play our affiliation with this body of work.  As a “nineteenth-century British Lit-o-phile” myself, I always struggle with this question of whether I should be researching something modern, or at least post-nineteenth century, but I am still drawn to this time period, even in American Lit!

I have a burning question for you though…would you talk about this Harry Potter archive in a job interview?  Or would you stick to your knowledge of 19th C. Brit. Lit?

Halberstam’s definition of low theory is really helpful and creates an important space for areas of research we in academia should not be afraid to investigate.  Harry Potter has a lot of substance to it and there should be a space for these texts within higher ed.  I mean, why not?  If there is room to analyze Spongebob, why not Hermione Granger too?

This sounds like an amazing opportunity for you because it blended both ends of the spectrum!

I have really never considered Harry Potter in this kind of way, but as I read this paragraph, it makes so much sense!  Yes, what you are dealing with here is not simply a collection of literature, but is really a network of capital as well.  Pottermore sounds like another way to lure in its audience members, but in a much more interactive way that even gets people playing around with the text!  From the sounds of this online environment, Pottermore goes beyond an advertisement tool, but it also immerses its readers more intensely into the world of Harry Potter.  If this keeps people reading, then I am all for that 🙂

Speaking of Jane Austen…I am presenting my paper from our Austen class last spring at the PAMLA conference in about two weeks in San Diego!

I like this imagery of the elder wand/pen!  It reminds me of what Gilbert and Gubar say about the pen in the introduction of The Madwoman in the Attic that ultimately becomes a symbol of freedom for female writers to write out a space for themselves.  With your elder wand pen, you can now write out a space for Harry Potter.

Wow…what a powerful narrative, Lauren!  I think this obsession with our bodies is something that speaks to a lot of us as women, or this drive we tend to have to compare ourselves to other women.  I really love how you link this all up with your mother’s poetry at the end because while you saw your mother as one of the enemies, she really was the one who wanted to help the most.  I mean, being 82 pounds at sixteen would scare me to death as your mother!  Sometimes I feel like we don’t ever truly understand our mothers until we get much older, or there is a lot of distance between our adolescent selves and our more mature sense of self.  I am sure it took a lot of strength to make that choice to stop dancing, and your question of whether “academia and ballet are so different,” is an interesting thought to consider because when we devote our lives to something so passionately, then we do set ourselves up for some sort of unhealthy behaviors.  But as you say, maybe it is the safety factor of academia that makes all the difference…?

Right, this question of normalcy is what has been plaguing a lot of disciplines, and is what seems to be getting played out in most in the texts we have read for this course.  There does not seem to be a sole definition of what constitutes normal, and I think more and more people are considering this as a viable claim.  You mention here that you “don’t think I’m particularly human,” and I am a bit confused when you state this.  Is it not a human endeavor to question things as you do?  If we didn’t question, then nothing would ever change.

I think that the environment within the Humanities, especially in English departments, there is a serious move away from teaching the canon.  In my Intro to Lit courses, I have a lot of freedom in choosing the anthologies, and I have never been told not to include something that strayed from these anthologies.  I have also noticed that a lot of the texts within the actual anthologies themselves have been shifting to include authors I never even studied as an undergrad myself! But I do sincerely believe that while we make space for new voices, there should still be some recognition of the old ones.  You mention Shakespeare in the next paragraph and while I do agree he should not necessarily be “so exalted,” it is important to expose our students to something Shakespearean, even if it involves showing them the film, Anonymous, which I think is a great way to contest the exemplary role Shakespeare plays within the canon.

Theory feels “simplistic” for you?  Wow…I wish I could say the same for myself (wink, wink)!

I think your connection to Ahmed’s trope of confinement seems fitting to your own work in African American Lit., and is something I had never even considered.  The idea that confinement can sometimes breed chance, or possibility is pretty exciting!

This is a very powerful passage, and I cannot help but think about how so many of the texts we have read for this class really call us to question this idea of the home and how it functions in our own lives.  I am thinking of Saidiya Hartman and Cvetkovich, who are both experiencing and undertaking journeys that always revert, return, and reaffirm what the home signifies for us.  For Hartman, her journey toward a home takes her across the world, and for Cvetkovich, it always takes her back to her grandma’s.  What I love about this passage, however, seems different from Hartman and Cvetkovich because of this emphasis on actual, physical objects that hold the things we cannot always grasp; the walls express the inexpressible, but that is alright.  These inexpressible utterances are what cause the trauma for Hartman when she cannot find peace with the past, and likewise, for Cvetkovich.          

Right, Julie!  Your observation that Ahmed is artfully playing around with concepts we typically consider negative or limiting, like this idea of confinement, is one of the things I like most about her text as well.  J

All I can think of for some reason when I read this paragraph is the play, M. Butterfly, and I think your THO could be applied well with this text.  How do you see THO operating in a classroom?  Would you consider teaching with it in any significant way?    

I really like your comment here in this paragraph about a possible “makeover” for the British texts at the turn of the 19th century in terms of how the literature approaches affect.  As someone who is interested in this particular field, I too have been thinking about the ways in which affect studies can be ascribed to a lot of the canonical texts that come out of this historical moment, specifically with regard to pessimism (I am thinking Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Ernest, even though he is Irish).  We did not really talk about pessimism necessarily in this class, but it could certainly be discussed in relation to our texts on depression and unhappiness.  I would even argue that some earlier works, like what we get from Wilkie Collins, even sets the stage for this type of affect reading.  So what kinds of texts are you thinking in terms of American Lit?  I am interested in knowing what you are thinking…possibly Twain?       

I forgot all about this passage; thanks for the reminder!  Isn’t this what we, as literary scholars are attempting to do overall?  I feel like there is always a defense we feel we need to make when we do not study or write about “modern” texts, but even Shakespeare can teach us a thing or two about our own current language!  🙂

Right, Rob!  I am reminded of Ahmed’s introduction where she talks about all the scientists attempting to quantify and measure happiness, which seems like a joke to us, but is something very real for others, as we are a society driven by numbers, evidence, and methodology.  I always wonder if we will ever be able to form a bridge between these two forms of thought?

Sure, Kamal:  j.s.sullivan@iup.edu

I am planning on making some final comments to everyone the final writing project 🙂

Some more on Moten and Harney: http://classwaru.org/2012/11/12/studying-through-the-undercommons-stefano-harney-fred-moten-interviewed-by-stevphen-shukaitis/

Our prezi notes. http://prezi.com/f5jsxeitxsyy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

I tried to make them so everyone can edit if you would like to make additional notes.

I’m gonna prezi everyone again.  Not a typo, it’s now a verb to me. http://prezi.com/xj85ji8s9g6m/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

I can’t these readings on DropBox. Maybe I’m missing something…any ideas?

I can see now. Nevermind!

Just some thoughts since I won’t be in class:

La Guin: Love this. I’ve read some of her other stuff. Think I will use it as a class reading. I’m trying to construct a “happiness” unit :-).

Povinelli:
p. 9 top “An idea represents…intrinsic idea”
Could this be adding to our definition of structure of feeling?

p. 27 bottom “As democracy…would be judged from their potentiality”
The constantly changing criteria for growth…what will the next hoop be?

p. 38 middle “But the ever expanding United States…into domestic depending sovereignties (natives)”
I have encountered this idea before, but never this clearly articulated – the “creole logic”

Thanks Rob! Beret it is!

I am drawn to the “making a difference” as well. You may never know the significant “difference” you make in your students lives. But what if “making a difference” was somehow, in a non-selfish way, for us too. Reclaiming the notion of your own agency?

I really like how you tie this into the service learning and social justice as a whole. By describing your place (your teaching, writing, doing, etc.) you show how your choice of career embodies that justice.

Your description conveys the intellectual’s burden…it might be different for each person, each country, each time in history. At the same time your “burden” as an intellectual also ties with many others throughout history.

You paint this beautiful and noble picture of an intellectual – one that has a duty and responsibility and as I noted earlier, a burden as well. In addition, there is this hope which you communication. The hope that it will come from the university, maybe instead of the government or even the streets.

My archives include failures as well.  For me, failures can be inspiring.  They remind me that I have failed, I can fail and I will fail again, but even if I choose to live in that failure for awhile or get up quickly, in the end it will be ok.  I learn through failures what I cannot learn through successes.

I really like how you give recognition to others in what amounts to your archive collection.   Great description of ghosts/haunting.

Wow. Powerful last sentence.

For sure…I guess I value the super scary ones too.   I think I’m also questioning what the recovery of a failure actually means.

Maybe it’s better to say that the canon for Comp/TESOL is a bit ambiguous in that certain institutions would focus on particular areas so it’s hard to say that “THIS is part of the Comp/TESOL canon”.  I appreciate the challenge because I guess the comment may not be essentially true, but comes out of some of my frustration with the I** program.  A “Foundational Texts” course was added the cohort after mine because my cohort must have shown no knowledge of said canon.  If I didn’t have a particular aversion to canons in general, I think I could construct what some would consider a traditional TESOL canon or a traditional Comp canon.

Wow…this sounds great.  Nice description!

I totally agree sci-fi allows us to consider alternatives and question the normal.  This class introduced me to the idea of “queer” as a verb and your descriptions of the queering of gender, emotion visibility, secretivity, rage seem to fit in well to that idea.

Fantastic goal.  Knowing what I have seen of your work so far, you will accomplish it!

Totally fun (or maybe we aren’t suppose to have fun in the Academy).  Love the comment”We are expected as scholars to follow our interests, as long as these interests are in some way marketable to a university’s English department. “

Haha.  I left the review to sign up. I just signed up. I’m in Hufflepuff

Nice “network of capital” idea.  I wonder how this fits in with other works as well?

Going off Jaclyn’s idea, this challenges me to help students find avenues for “immersion” in a text.

I hope you are correct Matthew!

I hope you are correct Matthew!

Like an academic Comic Con?

Contrary to my obsession with failure in this course, I actually try to approach ideas from the brightside as well. It might only be in my seemingly cheerful attitude…somehow students always think I am in a good mood (which is definitely not true). I often get comments about the positive classroom environment. I think your pursuit is important and a needed addition to the academic world. Thanks for sharing this…I’m go glad it turned out ok for you. Unfortunately, I’ve had close proximity to those who have been prevented from a teaching career or have had to give up their licenses.

I can feel your stress in the waiting! How horrible!

That’s a brave thing…

What a great story. Thank you for articulating your teaching philosophy. I totally agree with you. I was having a conversation about curriculum and pedagogical practices that focus on valuing the idea of World Englishes. My friend commented on how in Toronto she was surprised how the English language learning system still favors a type of banking system. You mentioned the idea of student and parent expectations. How do you think we can really change what seems to be a preference for banking by the those that are monetarily supporting the system?

I love how you structure this piece. I didn’t know what to expect in the start. I think your acceptance of self contrasts clearly to what Bechdel conveys throughout her book (though her ending shows some “resolution”) Your exploration of the true source of contention is so insightful. Speaking for myself, I find it utterly annoying when I realize my motivation or source for a particular feeling years after I’ve been acting based on that feeling. Alas, the human condition…thank you for sharing this!

Haha…I have to admit, sometimes “close reading” seems more obscure to me than reading body language and facial expressions.

I really appreciate the addition of the disability studies literature. As I expressed in class…I can’t find my “place” yet in the discussion. In some ways it’s a bit strange because I probably have more experience with the topic than others we have delved into. I have some opportunities for research in this area (not until post-dissertation!), particularly as it relates to services for children in multilingual families. This was a great intro to the topic and I plan to read more. Thank you!

Great thought. I can really see your analogy. Would you say we could apply the analogy to other relationships of power? Colonizer and colonized? Teacher and student?

I also relate to the concept of alternatives in the chaos…that knowing takes place in the chaos. How do you think this will affect your classroom teaching?

Like the link inclusion!

So is this going to be your final paper? Sounds like a great candidate. I’ve never seen the film, but your links and explanation help me to understand your points. I wonder if there is another current pop piece (maybe not movie, but commercial or sitcom) that actually still demonstrates the principles of the 50s commercial so students could see how the times haven’t changed so much.

You have such a great narrative quality to your statement! It is refreshing to read! I find it valuable that you give a story to the statement by showing where you have been and what steps you have taken to get to your place in the present. Your insight into secondary education initiates the idea that what we are teaching high school students is quite different from what they will be learning in college. They may be reading the same texts, but there seems to be a whole different way of teaching that happens from the transition of a well-regimented curriculum to a somewhat freer atmosphere.

You use Ferguson’s work well, and highlight his main points of his argument. It is depressing to think about how we think that someone may have the best intentions, but in the end it does not really happen the way we expect it to. I love this sentence: “Even what seemed like social progress in establishing the departments of difference is subsumed in the narrative of the privatization of the university and its hegemonic culture of knowledge.” This is exactly the problem of the university!

One of the most interesting aspects of your essay is when you say, “The university offers the best space for doing, thinking, writing, and then, more doing.” You did not say that it is the best place, but it offers the best space. I have been dwelling on this thought for many moments now, and you are right. It may not be the best place, for it does display hegemonic values and reinforced patriarchal practices, but it does offer a space for the intellectual to create. Sometimes it is the only space that offers help in the way of research, and it is why research institutions are able to retain their staff.

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I like how you begin your statement by saying “I am a reader.” That sentence is a very powerful statement, and it suggests a lot about who you are as a person as well. I love the sentence, “Being too busy to read is like being too busy to eat-it cannot last…”

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Organic intellectuals are people that we are all striving to be. (I hope!) I think this will be a theme that will to continue to come up in the classroom. I like how you talk about the organic intellectual as someone who feels something about what they are doing. They must have the passion and joy for what they are doing, or it does not seem to work effectively. I also found it interesting when you say, “I orient my scholarly work around (my) idea of teaching.” I have never thought about this, and how we may even be doing it unconsciously. I think it is a valuable point because we are so indebted to the work that we do, that I think it surrounds many of our thoughts. It may be impossible to break away from our own “agenda” when we are writing something. I know the writing I produce is dominated by my personal interests, and the theories that I use support those interests as well. I wonder how effective our scholarship would be if we would step outside of our comfort zones? I know this is making me want to do so!

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“But students generally aren’t on the cutting edge, they are often still at the basics of why does this matter in life.” Students may be at the basic, intermediate, or expert level as readers, but how should we teach them? I find myself asking this question a lot. I want to know if we should be teaching the latest material even though they have not developed the basic skills. I am not sure if it would be beneficial to do so, or if it may be redundant by teaching them the same skills that teachers have been attempting to teach them for years!

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My favorite sentence in your statement is, “For me, hearing and telling stories is all real-world valuable because there is so much in there about different possibilities and looking at the world through different eyes.” This is part of my teaching philosophy! Listening to the stories of others is valuable! The experiences that each of us have had are worth sharing, and I encourage people to share. It gives everyone a new perspective, one that they may have not had the opportunity to engage with before.

Sorry Megha, for some reason WordPress and I fight all the time about formatting. I am re-posting what I wrote in a format that is understandable.

I like how you begin your statement by saying “I am a reader.” That sentence is a very powerful statement, and it suggests a lot about who you are as a person. I love the sentence, “Being too busy to read is like being too busy to eat–it cannot last…” I love this!

Organic intellectuals are the type of person that we are striving to be (I hope!) I think this will be a theme that will continue to arise in the classroom. I like how you talk about the organic intellectual as someone who feels a certain way about what they are doing. They must have the passion and joy for what they are working on, or it does not seem to work effectively. I was also interested by your idea saying, “I orient my scholarly work around (my) idea of teaching.” I have never thought about this, and how we may even be doing it unconsciously. I think it is a valuable point because we are so indebted to the work that we do, that I think it surrounds many of our thoughts. It may be impossible to break away from our own “agenda” when we are writing something. I know the writing I produce is dominated by my personal interests, and the theories that I use support those interests as well. I wonder how effective our scholarship would be if we would step outside of our comfort zone? I know this is making me want to do so!

“But students generally aren’t on the cutting edge, they are often still at the basics of why does this matter in life.” Students may be at the basic, intermediate, or expert level as readers, but how should we teach them? I find myself asking this question a lot. I want to know if we should be teaching the latest material even though they have not developed the basic skills. I am not sure if it would be beneficial to do so, or if it may be redundant by teaching them the same skills that teachers have been attempting to teach them for years!

My favorite sentence in your statement is, “For me, hearing and telling stories is all real-world valuable because there is so much in there about different possibilities and looking at the world through different eyes.” This is part of my teaching philosophy! Listening to the stories of others is so valuable! The experiences that each of us have had are worth sharing, and I encourage people to share. It gives everyone a new perspective, one that they may not have had the opportunity to engage with before.

I completely understand what you’re saying here. When we feel as strongly as we do about certain fields of literature, it seems as though we just HAVE to talk about them. I feel as though I could relate anything to African-American literature, and I guess I have been guilty of doing so. I think this is what makes us such great students and teachers. Our passion will transition into the classroom where we can talk about what is important to us all day long! Okay, so I’m a little excited.

When I was introduced to the “silly archive” I thought to myself, there is finally a place where other things can live. Too often we fall into the hold of academia where things need to be perfect, researched, researched some more, perfected by someone else, etc. I love this silly archive because it gives research a new frontier. We are now allowed to research things that we would never have thought of doing because we thought it would be a waste of time. The silly archive is definitely a place we need to inhabit from time to time!

This is very interesting! The use of the word “terrorism” has been tossed around for more than a decade, and the people who use it are often the colonizers. I have never really thought about this much, but anytime someone challenges the power structure, a name must be given in order to excite fear in the public in order for an action to happen. I find the following sentence to be very insightful: “Indigenous resistant acts usually are an act of nationalist movement; however, they ought to be portrayed as an aggressive and linked to terrorism acts by the colonizers.” These acts ARE portrayed as aggressive acts of terrorism.

I think this is an excellent essay. I would like to hear more about your own personal archive as well. What is it that has drawn you to these novels/texts? How is your own personal archive shaped by these texts and why should we teach post colonial literature? I think it may be one of the most important forms of literature we have, but how has it affected you in your academic life?

Wow, what a powerful memoir. I love the form(s) that you’re playing with, and how they’re interacting with the text. It is refreshing to see your involvement with your students. I think there is a constant line drawn between the professor and student, and we are so careful not to cross that line. How can we NOT feel involved in their lives? In our area of discipline we ask the students to be open, write stories, memoirs, etc., but we are also aware that we have to be withdrawn when it comes to their personal lives. It seems like you still struggle with this event in your life, and I’m sorry about that. Well done, Janelle!

I think your memoir is great! Do you feel an enormous amount of pressure regarding what you’ll teach in the classroom? You said there is not a lot of expertise in English Literature studies at the University you’ll be teaching in. Will you be able to teach what you want to, or will you be limited to certain texts? I like to see how relevant multi-ethnic texts are to many of cultures. I am interested in hearing about how your teaching progresses once you begin your journey as a professor! i feel that the multi-ethnic texts will be very relevant in the classroom and beyond.

When the repression of sex is held to the highest esteem, it seems to happen more!

“If great suppression is imposed on straight sexuality, how would one imagine the view regarding queer sexuality?” Excellent! I have often thought about what it would be like for the homosexual to live in a predominantly religious place. It seems like it would be a frightening place to live, but on the other hand, homosexuals are killed in America due to their sexual preference.

Can co-education be changed? It seems as though not much can be done while the genders are separated from one another. Feminism can be taught without saying the word feminism. I have no doubt you will do an excellent job bringing what you studied here to home!

Dr. Lothian,

I will re-examine the essay to determine why I have used homosexual instead of queer, etc. I will also attempt to answer your questions in the essay.

Julie

No, they don’t have to be passing. I do suggest that through confinement they are attempting to hide their actions, though. This triangle was built regarding the texts Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. In these two texts the lifestyles are very separate. I understand that queerness is something that can be fluid, jagged, etc. but in this case I wanted to make a claim that the characters have developed two different lifestyles in order to gain different things.

Yes I am quite familiar with black queer studies and have read Sedgwick’s work as well.

I understand there is a lot that needs to be worked out here with terms, etc. It’s just a starting point, and I’m happy to have all comments/critiques! Also, I am not trying to be insensitive in any way regarding the terms being used. I welcome ideas there as well. Thank-you.

I used the term homosexual because I wanted to make a clear distinction between straight and gay sexual actions. It was the easiest way to do so, and the audience I had written the paper for would get those distinctions. In a revision I may change a lot of the terminology, not only to make it more effective, but to also make it more reader friendly. It seems as though I’m setting up a pretty strict dichotomy, but that isn’t the case AND is not well articulated. In a revision the term homosexual will not be included as it is in here. Does that answer your question at all?

Thank-you!!! I have seen professors do this on numerous occasions. They are not only asked to compare their culture, but they’re also asked to represent that culture/race. How is that okay? I’m so “happy” 🙂 that you’re addressing the issue because it has become a problem.

I look forward to reading your dissertation! I actually never thought about how the students may have children that are in the American school system. That is a really interesting topic, and I look forward to hearing more about it.

 
Evidently, there is much in common between my thoughts and yours Menia. This springs from the fact that we come from the same environment, i.e. the Arab world.  This makes the situation in Libya, my home country, similar to that in your country as far as the educational system is concerned. Education in Arab world, in all its levels, suffers from the dominance of the banking system. Instructors are viewed as authorities whose ideas cannot be negotiated. That is why the basic role of the teacher is represented in dictating and conveying information that students have to memorize and reproduce in exams.
This situation becomes more tragic in teaching literature. Literary studies, which are essentially considered as a rich arena for creating and exchanging ideas, have become a discipline where there is a dominance of only one vantage point; that of the teacher. Students expect the instructor to come to class explaining the plot, setting, theme and structure of the literary work. The students’ role within this paradigm is to memorize what the teacher dictates and then give it back in the exam, which essentially tests the student’s ability to memorize rather than encourage him to show his personal critical thinking.
         Despite all these challenges, I believe that the philosophy of critical pedagogy is the best methodology I can use in teaching literature for students in my home country.  The democratic atmosphere that critical pedagogy creates is in line with the philosophy of teaching literature that essentially focuses on personal appreciation of the text rather than memorizing historical and personal information imposed by the teacher. The implementation of critical pedagogy in teaching literature should take into consideration all the assumptions and principles perpetuated by its theorists.

All right my dear Megha,
I was attracted by your title. I think this is a witty title. Being a reader means a lot. It means being a critical person, which means, among many things, questioning and analyzing. The cornerstone of change is questioning the status quo, which is the major mission of the modern teachers.
 
            Along these lines, “Finding things that haven’t been said” is illuminating. Still, I would suggest modifying this into “adding to things that have already been said.” This is because, ultimately, there is nothing that has never been shed light on before. As some critics say, all writings are plagiarized by one way or another.
 

 
As far as my reading of Arab American women writers is concerned, I noticed that most of their writings focuses primarily on two major themes: 1- Postcolonialism 2- Feminism. This is represented, for example, in the writings of Diana Abu Jaber. I have always critiqued this tendency. This excessive concern on these two topics makes the west involved in the conspiracy theory.
 
 
 

I want to comment on your “interest in nineteenth-century British literature (which) includes how women are portrayed in literary texts, what female issues are discussed in the text, and how early feminism informed the works of women writers.”
The point is that we need to be careful in dealing with this literature. This is because, as I reiterated in my assignment, although there was much victimization of women in the 19th century, there were elements of female agency and strength in the 19th century society.
In most critical reviews about 19th century literature, the underlying theme is the absence of what can be termed as power. Put another way, women do not have the power to influence what happens to their loved ones or themselves. This is the state that leads to the victimhood that these reviewers refer to. However, there are several published works that offer an alternative reading of women’s power in relation to men. The theme of female strength has been picked up by several feminist critics who desire to reverse the notion that women are weak, and therefore in need of protection and provision by men, which often results in mistreatment and servitude.
One voice in particular that is worth noting in the debate over female powerlessness and male domination of society is that of Laura Donaldson, in their  book, Decolonizing Feminisms: Race, Gender & Empire Building. Exploring the politics of identity in the Victorian age with particular attention to issues of women’s experience, Donaldson’s book shows how female power has more potential than most people in society are willing to accept. Donaldson treats the perception that women are weak as a form of colonial thinking. Thus, the process of rethinking that a certain gender is weak and can only be a victim or is of an inferior race is through what she describes as decolonization, which in the case of literature, simply means going back to the textual and contextual  evidence and modeling behavior from these building blocks. Donaldson locates a strong link between imperialism and white feminism, arguing that, by claiming the existence of “a single hermeneutic truth,” white middle class feminism is involved in an imperialist agenda that tends to colonize the mind with forced ideas. Many other writers authenticate Donaldson’s view, which proves that we need caution in treating this aspect.

I truly liked your memoir Julie for the significant issue it raises, the issue of blacks and whites and its reflection on literature. Can a white man teach African American literature?
The significance of the issue rises basically from bringing to the forth a minority issue. On the other hand, I liked the connection with feminism. In fact, I would consider blacks and women as part of what Gayatri Spivak called “The Subaltern” in her famous essay ” Can the Subaltern Speak?” Both groups are subordinated. Blacks are subordinated to the White and women are subordinated to men. Both are under the hegemony of the Master (man/white) who views them in the way he likes. This problem is doubled with black women. This is part of what some feminist call (the double bind paradigm).
Renowned black feminist, Alice Walker addresses the issue of black women. She criticizes mainstream feminism of neglecting black experience and focusing on middle class white women. In response, Walker calls for resorting to “Womanism;” a model that takes into consideration all women from all races, classes and backgrounds.

As matter of fact, your entry Matthew about theprophesy and the details about it (fundamentalism) instilled in me more philosophical questions about religious fundamentalism. A few days ago, I read an article by a famous atheist about Muslim fundamentalism.  The author did not target Islam as much as fundamentalism in all religions. He states that “the problem with Islamic fundamentalism is the fundamentals of Islam.” Taking this to target all religions, “Islam” here would be replaced with any other religion.
The question is: To what extent is this argument true? Are religions inherently fundamental? Is the mere existence of violent punishment in a religion sufficient to call it terrorist? What defines a fundamental? What is more, atheists use this as an argument against theism. They argue that religion is behind all evil in society.
I think we need to address this urgent point.

Indeed, thanks for reading my personal narrative.
As a hegemonic model of teaching, the banking system is colonial by nature. It assumes the existence of a non-questionable authority (the teacher) to whom all subjects (students) report and whose orders they should obey. The problem-posing model, on the other hand, is liberating (decolonial). It believes in equality, emancipation, freedom of thought and equal opportunities.
It is really ironical that it is the colonial countries that implement decolonial education. This is not very strange as it springs from the double standards that these countries adopt. America and the UK are colonial with the East only. They aim at occupying the East in terms of military, education and culture. Conversely, these countries are liberal with their citizens. In addition, they aim at changing the negative view of their hegemony with the East by implementing liberating educational models.

What impressed me in your essay Rob, is the implied question about the mission of literary criticism. This is an umbrella question that opens a dialogue among all critical approaches from archetypal criticism to post-Foucauldian approach. However, I was struck by the contention that literature (is) an expression of the human.” To begin with, one cannot approach literary criticism by suggesting unquestionable facts like this one. Second, although this contention goes in line with many critical schools such as Cultural Studies, Feminism and others, it goes against the premises of others, like American New Criticism and Russian Formalism with their stress on “Arts for Arts Sake.”

I guess we need to take a more comprehensive approach to this issue; one that understands and accommodate all approaches to literary criticism. I strongly believe that the major characteristic of a literary critic is to go beyond the blind belief of sticking to one (and only one) view of literary texts.

The concept of “Diaper Stories” made me focus upon the feminist issue in your essay Lauren, especially with the stress on the idea of the “feminist killjoy.” I would take the term “Diaper Stories” to reflect a patriarchal mocking of women stories (writers), especially those that highlight the domestic sphere.

In fact, the binary opposition between the domestic sphere and the public sphere as such is the creation of the man-made society to serve its mission of confining women. Despite all the miseries ensuing from this division, history and literature as well prove that women excelled even in the domestic sphere that they were confined to. Many historians and feminist of the 19th century in particular proved that women not only managed the situation, but could master power and agency in the domestic sphere, both in themselves and in the people around them.

Hello my dear Jaclyn, Can I have your iup E-mail address, since I didn’t receive any comments from you so far.

Thanks a lot.

Kamal.

Being an international student, what struck me in the essay Janelle is the focus on the international student. The issue of the “happiness” of the international student” is of much concern to all international students here. I do not quite agree that by time the smile of the international students “fade, and the frustrations surface.” However, I do agree that those students, by time, “learn to play the game.  They put on the smiles and keep being “happy” because who wouldn’t be – they are studying in the greatest country in the world.”

Hello my dear Sheila, Could you send me your IUP E-mail please. since I haven’t received any comments or replies by your E-mail.!!.

Thanks.

Kamal.

Rob, this was a really meticulous summary of Sedgwick’s overall project with Touching Feeling and a great connection to your purpose in academia.  The connection between Oedipus’ exit from the authorial dilemma and the American mythos of success you plan to complicate for students struck me as refreshingly original.  Instead of waging futile battles within the machine of the university, you’re concerned with preaching (your metaphor, not mine!) realistic expectations for one’s future and self-knowledge that will help students redefine success in their own terms.  In this way, students become the “friction which impedes the governing machine,” though maybe in an even more subversive way, since you seek to change some pretty internalized conceptions of comfort, ambition, and the life narrative as we know it.

In fact, your academic position is closely associated with the overall goal of queer theory, questioning social constructions of expectations and how the expected life narrative is communicated to us.  This was just an observation; your own articulation using Kermode’s terms was superb.

I really enjoyed the note you ended on, stressing the relationship of the student to the world and the importance of the contextualization of knowledge.  It made me think about how contextualizing might actually work against some of our messages in the classroom.   Should we be worried that students will contextualize (and possibly compartmentalize) us?  Will our sermons only be considered in the context of “This is how we talk and think in English class,” but the minute they step outside of the classroom revert to their ingrained value systems?  Am I paranoid much?!  Your position statement gave me a lot to think about!

I love your word choice in the second to last sentence:  “[the professor’s] task in the society is more RISKY than ever.”  It’s absolutely risky!  The way you position yourself is clearly political and subversive, maintaining your identity with working class issues in Saudi Arabia.  Risk involves an emotional investment, as Gramsci knew personally doing so much of his writing while imprisoned.  While incarceration may be a legitimate threat or not to you, another risk, and this might be just as serious to you, is to assimilate into the group of traditional intellectuals.

On some level it’s impossible to avoid it, right?  Everyday in the classroom and in our research pursuits we risk recreating the very structure we want to reform.  The pressure is certainly on new professors to conform (or be “radical,” but in the right way.)  I was struck by how adamantly you call for a social revolution in your country beginning in the university.  You wrote, “A political movement against these issues [capitalism, sexism, racism] can possibly help, but professors at the university have a better chance to solve these issues.” While I agree that professors have a unique position within society, I’d like to hear more about what plans and practices you’ve encountered that could help your mission at the university.  Like Freire’s work that we encountered in class last year, there’s always a great deal of risk!

You’re right!  I’ve conflated chrononormativity and middle-class norms and temporalities.  Halberstam seems to be very suspicious of Trainspotting’s class-only critique, saying that it fails because it gives way to racism, homophobia, and sexism.  I guess I have some interactions with coworkers that would support this critique, but plenty of others that would refute it.

On the line at one restaurant I worked at, all of the cooks were black men who had done prison time at some point in their lives.  This doesn’t do much for stereotypes.  The only black woman at the same restaurant was a server/bartender who easily doubled my tip total on a weekend because she was that fast and had a spectacular personality and smile.

We can chat more about this in the future!

Though I’ve never seen the show, the relationship between these two characters reminds me of Halberstam’s discussion of the kind of optimism that Little Miss Sunshine offers.  He says that the ray of sunshine is countered by cloudiness, and the meaning of the one relies on the meaning of the other.  It’s certainly a realistic portrayal of friendships that have their ups and downs, willingness to cooperate followed by moments of refusal.

I can see why you’re drawn to this show for composition research.  It probably offers a lot in terms of mediating difference in exchanges.  The way you’ve focused on the breakdown of this communication is interesting, and I’m wondering if this is somewhat reading against the grain of what you typically look for in your research?

Your conclusion made me think about what are “safe” failures that we can revel in and cleave to?  At the opening of class, Dr. Lothian suggested that failure may actually be a privilege.  If all our basic needs are met, we can experience failure as something to reflect on or revel in.

Certainly failing to make rent payments or being denied health insurance are not failures that we can look back on and say, “Well, at least I learned something from it!”  Homelessness or unemployment are not glamorous failures.  I’ve tried to think of other failures that aren’t economical, but I’m having trouble.  A miscarriage or a failed marriage proposal could have such a profound effect on a person that recovery may never actually happen.  In perspective our silly failures or disappointments can seem like a privilege.  Your example of students failing a class or even failing out of the university altogether seem to fall right in the middle between a “safe” failure and a “super scary” failure.

I agree with both you and Janelle that SF has the potential for complicating norms and pushing students toward a critique of them in the classroom.  Perhaps I enjoy it so much myself for the same reason.

I’m wondering about the connection you make here at the end with Freeman.  Did you see a connection about time in The Mother of Demons?    Perhaps I’m jumping ahead; your next paragraph is on history.  The description of the emotions on display that you give here challenge our societally-based separation of desire and public space.  I need to get my hands on this book!

You make a lot of good points about this being an opportunity to talk about censorship in the classroom and to challenge the linear concept of progress and history.  The ideas that the historian in the novel chooses not to share reminded me of Halberstam’s mention of  pirate cultures in his intro.  These other possible routes were not included in the linear telling of history because they “lost” to capitalism.  The other ideas “lost” to the ones that the historian’s society decided were more beneficial, yet they still exist as alternative paths that could have been.  Nice connection to Love here too!

Students often respect a certain amount of indecision and presentation of multiple perspectives.  When all else fails, show  scenes from The Empire Strikes Back where Yoda expounds on pedagogy.  How can anyone argue with Jedi wisdom?!

On a more serious note:  education is messy, but it sounds like you’re willing to take risks that will more than likely be worthwhile.

This emphasis on creating happy customers rather than critical citizens exists here too in private schools at least.  The privatization of public universities is also becoming a problem.  (Remember Bill Readings’ book in Dr. Downing’s class?) You’re right:  it’s hard to think of yourself as a professional when the circumstances make you feel like you’re encouraged to be an automaton.

Wow! That takes a lot of courage to resign without a plan!

I admire your willingness to stick to your principles when it would have been easier to go along with what the administration wanted.

This was really surprising to me.  Has there been any recent movement towards a national literature?  Do works by Libyan authors become relegated to a category less prestigious than Literature?  I’m honestly shocked, as this is not the case any more in many countries.

This was a funny reflection on the authority figure that the professor often represents.  University professors in the states were more like this a few decades ago, I think.

When I had a 7th and 8th grade homeroom a few years ago, there was a running joke among the students that I slept on a cot beside my desk. Not true! But sometimes it felt like I never left!

Your reflection on neoliberalism’s influence on the classroom is great!  Most teachers are depressed about the direction of education as a pre-packaged, one-size-fits-all curriculum, as you explain through your use of Cvetkovich.  Your personal story shows this, as well as how you have a personal stake in combating this in your home institutions.

I remember you telling us about this in class.  It must have been really hard to stand by and watch as what you had spent so much time preparing and considering carefully was attacked!  I know I would have taken it personally as you did.

This was really insightful about teaching as a solitary experience.  You may find support and places to vent with others, but day-to-day you find yourself alone at the chalkboard or podium.  Every course, and even every class is so different, so knowing what to expect can be terrifying alone.

Your connections between Hartman and the literature theory classroom are great!  Your value of theory and the quest to validate its importance for students is a personal journey that has some similarities to Hartman’s.  I hope your journey is successful in finding something, unlike how we know things end up for Hartman…

This is a great goal for the class, and something I think your students will appreciate.  If it weren’t for theory, literature classrooms would be a lot like book clubs.  While those serve a purpose, I agree with you that an upper level English classroom can’t accomplish the depth in response that it should without theory.

I’m also really glad that the second week of class was much better!  You’ll have to update us later in the course.

This was a great reflection on how what happens in the classroom affects us personally.  You had some great connections to Hartman and Gordon, too, Jaclyn!

I’m glad Dr. Lothian brought up Lee Edelman because I was going to throw in my usual rant about children as the “for what” that we make such happiness scripts.  I  tried to teach Night by Elie Wiesel to 8th graders once and was stopped by several parents who told me the book was horrifying.  How could I subject children to such visions of Holocaust violence?!  What is wrong with me?!  Are 13 and 14 year olds really not ready for history, even if it is gruesome?  The children of Omelas were shown the child in the broom closet between the ages of 8 and 12.  What might be the effects of showing younger people the child in the closet?  What would happen if children were taken to soup kitchens on Christmas Eve instead of sat on Santa’s lap at the mall?  I’m sorry I’m such so entrenched in this academic pessimism…:(

Also, I promise I don’t hate children and I’m not entirely against giving them a happy ending.  I myself want reparative readings and don’t want to let go of agency.  Maybe growing up with happy endings gives us  a “life is full of disappointments but it will all be okay in the end” attitude that keeps us all going.  If we mess too much with that, we might risk something else.

When I saw this video I was immediately reminded of Ahmed’s idea of deference of happiness.  The logic of the video suggests that the role of parents is to give their kids the best opportunity for happiness, even if it costs parents their own happiness.  The script of parenthood is selfless sacrifice.  While some take issue with this, I appreciate how you own this optimism, Matt!  Who doesn’t want a better world?  How else could we possibly get there without optimism and the possibility of a happy ending? 

Can I suggest an article that I think Ahmed is building on here, though she didn’t explicitly say so?  Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner co-authored  “Sex in Public” in Critical Inquiry that is about how the discourse on sex has often relegated it to the private sphere.  They state that national heterosexuality is not monolithic, but it achieves hegemony through separating and labeling sex as personal, existing outside of politics or the public sphere. Under the guise of family values and the demonization of any visible sex, heterosexuality is privileged (550).  Ahmed’s analysis of confinement seems to me to rebuke instead of celebrate the separateness of queer relations.  “A revolution of unhappiness might require an unhousing; it would require not legitimating more relationships, more houses, even more tables but delegitimating the world that “houses” some bodies and not others” (106).

Here’s a link to “Sex in Public” if you’re interested:

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1344178?uid=3739864&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103037282803

Thanks, Rob! I’ll look into them!

I went to see this movie in the theater with my mother, and in the car ride home we talked a lot about the character Julia Stiles plays.  Her character gets accepted to Yale law school but decides not to go and to get married instead.  She asks Katherine to respect her decision.  I couldn’t get over her decision when such an opportunity was available to her!  (I know this judgment is unfair; I was a college freshman.)  I haven’t seen the movie in a really long time, but it strikes me now as a great companion to the feminist killjoy chapter as you’ve explained here.

I had put The Help on syllabi in the past thinking of it as a text that includes intersections of race into the critique of the family (or home in particular) as a source of nostalgia and happiness.  I’ve come across quite  a bit of backlash against the book and film recently that I thought you would be interested in.  Perhaps there are connections to Ahmed’s analysis of the angry black woman and her role as a feminist killjoy.  This is one statement I found useful about The Help:

http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2%3Aopen-statement-the-help

When I first mentioned wanting to comment on your work, I was thinking specifically of this particular passage, mostly because of wholly selfish reasons. In many ways, it resonated with where I’ve been lately: this near disgust at the whole process of academia that seems to render us as copiers of whatever came before. That you’re presenting it in an intriguing, vivid manner (the whole Pharisee image was particularly striking) only made it all the stronger.

However, I have actually read the whole post, and I’ve even looked at Lauren’s comment, and I think I’m beginning to see the glimmer of hope here. You resonate with the whole idea of space that you were able to parse out of Sedgwick’s writing. It’s not only that you’re seeing it, but that you want to see it, which could be seen as a bad thing, I guess, but I’m not meaning it to be here. I think what you’re drawing on here is the importance for us as academics to see the spaces that some of these others are pointing out for us, be they Undercommons or affect, and encouraging a sort of sliding into place.

At least I hope so, because otherwise this is just gonna depress me so much.

While I was reading this, I was struck by what I’m seeing as an assertion here: this idea that there’s joy in doing some sort of critical reading. I never really thought of it this way; in point of fact, I’m so often focused on the exact opposite that the idea seemed to be a complete impossibility. Too often I try to compartmentalize, to push aside the critic so that I can actually enjoy something, particularly when it comes to stuff within my direct field of interest (meaning animation and films, so talk about ruining the joy).

However, the idea you’re presenting here intrigues me, and not because I find myself disagreeing. On the contrary, I think this is very much in line with what we’re really accomplishing and starts to uncover what’s going on in our warped brains. We start being people who just love literature on the surface (picking up Harry Potter books because THEY’RE AWESOME), and end up thoroughly enjoying because we’re starting to engage in it, and work at honing our critical ideas.

That Sedgwick gets brought in just makes it feel a little more valid (there’s something in getting someone published to agree with you on some level). I think that in some ways we’re enjoying our “performance” of reading and analyzing. There’s this sort of joy out of acting out the part of the academic, and I think it’s one that Sedgwick gets all too well.

I’m good to go for starting at this time; works better for me. I do have a class before this one, but that still gives at least a little time between the two.

It’s clear that you’ve definitely got Foucault down to some degree, obviously more than I will, and I can see where you’re coming from, but I’m still left feeling like something’s missing here. I can’t help but wish that I had seen more about why you were interested in this idea. It’s sort of there between the lines: you’re writing extensively about power dynamics and the interrelationships that are brought about by examining them, but I’m still left wondering what your take is on this and where you’re going with it. It’s fascinating stuff, I agree, and again, your knowledge of the scholarship is excellent.

It’s always fascinating for me to see the nexus where literature and philosophy meet, and I think Kamal’s doing a good job of outlining that for us. We’re blessed in that our discipline is one that lends itself to this kind of bleed over quite often.

It also reminds me of what we had talked about less semester in Dr. Sell’s class, when we looked at Foucault and the other things. Unfortunately, most of that has taken a back seat in my mind, so I cannot do more than remark upon the similarity, but it’s still there.

I just wanted to say that I really like the way you’re writing here. Not exactly the most substantive or provoking comment, but one I wanted to make nonetheless (Sheila has a good comment right there, so it’s all good).

What’s especially odd is that from what I’ve read recently, the “life-timers” are becoming more and more the norm. There are an increasing number of people that are in professions like this and attempting to keep their family afloat. The problem is then the cultural perspective that Lauren alludes to here: we still conceive of these jobs as part time work, the sort of trial of adolescence that we all go through. Maybe we’ll get over the label and inclination at some point in the future, but I’m just not sure that we as a society will until it starts getting addressed directly through our media. Even now, whenever an adult in an occupation like this is portrayed in the media, it is not in a pleasant light…

I think that there’s an almost guilty feeling to us as academics. It’s this idea that we’re not connected, that we’re stuck in some ivory tower, so we reach out to communities to try and build some kind of cultural bridge. That seems to be what you’re doing to some extent, or at least what you’re describing here. It almost speaks of a sort of guilt we all have, like we’re phonies or trying to pretend that we’re smarter and above everyone (we totally are, but that’s beside the point).

But I’d point out that we are connected to some degree, and you’re proving it here. While I admit to not being able to recall if you directly say it (because I fail), you’re part of this culture too, on some level. You are a member of the restaurant culture. I distinctly remember having a conversation with you about the ins and outs of your particular place of business, though I’ll be cussed if I can remember the name. Like it or not, you’ve become part of that community, so you can stop feeling like it’s a lie on some level.

And chances are there’s other communities you’re a part of too. We’re all connected in the great circle of life.

There’s an interesting idea here that I’m still turning over and may haunt me even when I kick my cat off my lap and leave my keyboard: the idea of the archive as being broken into categories. I certainly think in this way, and I think we all do to some level, but I definitely think that what you’re saying here, Julie, is right on track. Those same categories we like to use to save our sanity as humans are all big blurred messes. as you said: “no archive can entirely be isolated” and that resonates quite strongly. I also appreciated that you went further and said that “we’re not only looking at these particular identities, but also what has influenced this archive as a whole”, because in my utmost ignorance, I was totally typing something along those lines.

But the issue here that you raise is important and one that I think we sort of skip over or gloss. We realize that we’re compartmentalizing; we do it practically by compulsion, but I think that we don’t always think of the bleed over, though likely us academic types are starting to think about that more and more.

See, now you got me all frustrated. Mentioning this category-defying book and being all mysterious about what it’s about. Either that or I’m getting all kinds of confused, which often happens with me…

I think that this whole tasting thing often comes off as a cultural taboo, which I think you’re hinting at here, if not outright saying (my eyes are a little glazed at this point, which has little to do with your actual essay, mind). So much of the literature is written with that cautionary tale in mind. It’s much easier to get published if you’re saying the decadence is bad. I can’t help but feel that Wilde enjoyed the decadence more than he let on; he certainly reveled in it (and was tried for it, unfortunately).

But it does seem that we have similar ideas about what literature ends up being, at least from what I’m reading here. I’m all for closing those distances and stuff, which I’m sure is of little surprise to you. But I believe it was you who was so keen to point out to me that being aware of our limitations and our own problems is just as important.

I find it continually fascinating the weird stuff that gets our attention and hold onto it. Though I really feel like I ought to point out some sort of Freudian connection here, like some comment on how your exposure to literature or the text you chose references sex in such an outright manner. Has to make you wonder a bit, eh?

Ah, I read this paragraph and flail with much joy, to the point where I literally stopped reading to comment. Especially at this part:

” Had I myself not been exposed to A Doll House or “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a student, I would not have been able to find my own way to the Arab American literary tradition. ”

Because I think there’s something incredibly important to acknowledge there, and it seems to say what I wish I often said about the canon and stuff. It’s important, and we sometimes need to offer students those texts in order to help them get where they are going. There’s no way I would have ended up studying animation if I had not begun studying Shakespeare (dead serious). I’m also thrilled that someone else is making that connection.

Don’t get me wrong: I still would encourage you to go with what I think you’re already thinking: embedding some of the Arab American lit into the courses. Plus, what you say at the end is just wonderful. I just flail at the idea of someone eloquently expressing an idea that I hold dear as well, and I offer a hearty support for what I think you’re trying to say there.

It’s cool; I definitely understand what you’re saying. There have been times in class when I’ve noticed how excited you get when it gets around to African American literature, and there have been moments when I’ve been like “am I ever like that?” I think part of what really drives us is just this passion and connection we have to whatever. It might be annoying to our peers (or even our students) on some level, but I just KNOW that our passions have to transfer on some level.

I know I, for one, would be quite eager to take a course on African American lit if you were at the wheel. Well, maybe a unit; I’m still not that big of a fan.

I think we need both stubborn antagonizer and beautific reformers in the academy. The antagonizers are there to be more confrontational, to be more willing to stand up and try and change the course of academia, and to let all us reformers realize that sometimes we need to get our heads out of the clouds before something takes them off. On the other hand, I get to be the spreader of sunshine and rainbows and remind you aggressive types that not all is horrible in the world and in the academy; it can just be hard to find that stuff from time to time.

I actually saw a lot of what you’re talking about here Menia in the first paragraph. It struck me particularly since it seems that you have a very strong resonance with postcolonial literature. You had mentioned wanting to teach the various texts as part of identifying the “real history”, and I can’t help but feel that we all should stop and think about that message. These texts do need people like you to champion them, and I can see why there’s a particular draw. I do wish, like Julie mentioned, that a little more of it had been in your actual response, but taking that in combination with what you have here, I can see the clear picture, and it’s most definitely an admirable one.

It also seems to resonate well with my overall feeling and belief that we need to consider the cultural impact of texts and what they represent. You want to dig in and show these more “hidden” texts to your students, and you have found your passion in hiding them, and I think we definitely need people willing to uncover that part of the archive (and thankfully, there are more and more intellectual like you with each passing day).

Weird that I’m commenting on a comment, but here goes: there’s actually some movement to including stuff like Babylon 5 in the mainstream canon. There are more and more intellectuals acknowledging that cultural products like television shows are worth digging into (the whole rise of cultural studies thing). I’m definitely one who agrees wholeheartedly with you, Jaclyn: the more we can introduce stuff students are familiar with and develop discussion, the better.

Which strikes me as especially true given that Janelle is not alone in listing something that isn’t exactly “canon” as a text she was drawn to. We acknowledge that it’s different stuff that draws us in. I do admit that it’s fascinating to see what all we’re interested in, and it’s cool that this is what you elected to write on Janelle.

I have to admit to doing a bit of head tilting here, because I totally thought that there was a bit of a Comp/TESOL canon. I don’t think it’s, like, as strict, and the term might be confusing me (I have readily admitted to “confused” being my default scholarly state), but I have encountered some of the stuff. It’s not usually as sexy as the literary canon, lacking in Shakespeare, but I seem to recall having certain texts brought up regularly in the Comp courses I took as a Master’s student (I took a handful of courses and taught/tutored comp).

Still, I think that the direction you went feels a little more personal to me. There’s something about owning whatever it is we teach or that nudged us or granted experience, and I can’t help but feel like you owned that moment in Bablyon 5 (I has more comment later). I just wanted to air some of my confusion, and possibly be like “I totes know some comp, for reals!”

(I have no idea why I randomly talked like a teenage girl in there. Again: confused)

I love the idea being stated here: using a slightly more popular text (I dunno how popular Erik Flint is; I’ve read him, but I’m a geek) to get across some of the canonical messages. This reads like it speaks to your proclamations about science fiction previously, and, for this reader, serves as a solid argument for why we should consider using texts “outside the canon” in the classroom. The fact that you go even further into hinting at “cross disciplinary work” is just icing.

It also sort of resonates (and I might be borrowing a point from later on, so forgive me if this is cloudy) with the idea of just one or two people deciding what’s canon. I think I’m probably just parroting what you say here, Lauren, but the text Megha mentions here seems like such a good example of that that it’s almost scary. Here, everything is funneled through one person (or was it two? haven’t read the book; again: cloudy), and that person has created history. Seems to ring oddly familiar to what we experience in the Canon (big “C”). Which also resonates with the idea of a work like this being a good way of introducing the idea of branching off to students. What would happen if someone else got to control history? What alternatives are there? And all that good junk.

First, just gonna give a bit “ditto” to everything Jaclyn said there, and also add that I’m as interested in that final question as she is.

Second, I wanted to reiterate something that I swear I talked to you about or said or something at some point: there’s an upcoming group of academics that are all Potterfans (I cannot believe I am forgetting the term; someone’s gonna come and take my custom wand). While a lot of the academics before us grew up in the world where reading books, especially fantasy, was uncool, we grew up in the world where Harry Potter was the shit (and yes, that needed to be said just like that). About every student I’ve met in the program at this level has mentioned Potter, and I’ve actually sat in on meetings that get sidetracked because of discussions about Pottermore. This is becoming part of our culture as growing academics, and I bet ten to one that it’s going to spill over in the classroom.

So my challenge to sort of support Jaclyn’s questions is that we should be saying this is some of the stuff we’re interested in, because it needs to be put forth as part of our archives and acknowledged as being literature that is part of our culture (and I mean both our culture as fledgling academics [are we even fledglings anymore? Are we, like, adolescent birds or something? Is my metaphor falling apart?] and the pop culture that we see all over the place.

Yeah, nothing’s so much fun as trying to say straight faced “I study Harry Potter and I want you to hire me” (or in my case “I study animation,” but I swear I was trying to make this comment less about me). I’m still of the opinion that this attitude is shifting in the academy, but I could be foolishly optimistic.

Y’know, there are Austen fan communities. (What am I saying, of course you know). I’m just reminded again of a conversation I had with Dr. Lothian, and of the same comment she made in regards to what Love wrote about in her work: we seem to write about what we’re fans of. That passion and desire just sort of bleeds over into the academic contexts, and that seems nothing but good to me. If you stop and think about it, the fan communities are becoming more and more like academic communities. We have conferences where information is presented. We have experts. We have celebrities. It’s all starting to merge. Just watch, soon there will be academic conferences where if you’re not dressed in costume, you’re totally a plebeian.

I can’t help but find your response one that I’ve thought upon for the last few days, not least of all because I was among the many who initially had the same thoughts that you outline here. Namely, I couldn’t help but do something of a double-take when I heard that you were studying African-American literature. Even at the time, I realized that it was biased of me, sort of like when we assume that just because someone’s black they’re doing African-American lit.

However, I have since seen your passion for your field, and I believe that in some ways, you’re already doing a lot for the field. It’s important that we realize that whoever we are biologically only matters so much in relation to what we’re teaching. I’m a heterosexual white male myself, and I’d hate to be limited only to what “my kind” have written. To not be able to teach some of those works would be horrible.

But it’s this whole idea if identifying that gets to me. It’s an idea that we’re so willing to espouse but not nearly as willing to put into practice. And I’d also like to mention that I think you going into a classroom and telling students what you study would be inspiring, a sort of “you can study whatever the hell you want, so long as you have the passion and drive for it.” And we definitely need more of that in the classroom.

This last bit, the bit done in orange and what looks like italics, actually made me stop my reading and comment (which means I haven’t read anything yet). I can’t help  but feel that it’s one of those issues that we’re always constantly worrying about as educators. We’re given this position of power and asked to exercise authority over people, yet at the end of the day, we’re people too, we’re also human. So at what point do we have to do something that’s objective and how can we always tell? Is it really the best way of doing things or is it the best way we think things should be done? It’s one of those things that niggles at the back of my mind whenever I consider the classroom, and I bet we’re not the only two thinking, wondering, and fearing about it.

I think this assignment made us stop and think about our failures. I know I certainly wrote on one of mine. But I think we’re also seeing something that’s so important: that we’re going back and excavating these old wounds. Not only are we prodding at them, trying to figure out if they still hurt, but we’re starting to figure out where they came from and learn about them. I can tell that this affected you greatly; it comes through in the writing, but I can also tell that it’s affected you in the positive ways as well. Something tells me that you’ll find yourself better prepared for situations of this magnitude in the future. That sounds like it should be the cheesy bullcrap that shows up on Hallmark cards or movies (I do watch an unhealthy amount of cartoons after all), but when I write those words, I mean them, and I write them from a position of experience. It shows a great level of understanding and I applaud you for sharing this story with us.

Hi

I wanted to say I really liked the way your essay looks like a continuous thought process – moving from your interest in the humanitites in general, through your theorists, and to the specifics of your proposed classroom.  Your transtions are very neatly done.

I also like the way you bring Freire and Gramsci into conversation. When I was reading these two, I thought Friere focuses more on the power of education and teaching students to be indepenent, while Gramsci looks more to the naturally occuring self-learning that happens in some people regardless of circumstance.  The way you are integrating the two is really well thought out.  Both are concerned for social justice, and deal with issues of class, power, intellect, and loyalty. 

I am quite fond of the way you integrate your ideals for the value of a humanist education and the need for critical pedagogy. 

I think the kind of collaborative classroom you envision looks like it might take a bit of work to figure out (how to balance the need for things like involving students in the text selection process, vs time and resources needed for everyone to get books, or the need to balance student involvement with assesment criteria or classroom behavior with the possibility of hostile or disruptie student behavior.  But, however much work it takes to figure out, it looks to me like youare clear enough in what you want to accomplish and  how to get there in the end, and I think your goal is both laudable and worthwhile.

I love your statement about complicating, and individualizing, the ideas of “sucess” and, I suppose, meaning in life.  As someone who has struggled to articulate that my own idea doesn’t necessarily conform to anyone elses, I heartily approve of helping our students grapple with this question (irregardless of their ultimate decisions) I agree that realism (in one sense or another) is a ‘intuitive’ measure by which to judge texts.  that realism might be situations or histories, or in the case of more speculative fictions it may be sciences, or ideologies, or logic, or more basically, ‘humanity’ or people-ness, but it can be as rigidly or flexibly applied as needed, based on the ‘something’ (or the “most important something’) that the author or reader or time thinks is the most, deepest, true.  Looking as well, at the ways in which judging lit by reality also invites us to judge reality by fiction is a coherent, workable, play-able idea.  I may steal it to offer directly to future students for their tasting. I also like the way you analyze the ‘seeming’ change, the way in which underlying realities can be disguised by shifting (term, term… ) how about vocabularies?

Affect theory looks like a pretty useful way of trying to organize these undercommons, this resistance, although I do like the way you make clear it isn’t the only way or the ‘one true answer’.  It makes sense, though, and the way you position it as contextualization and a way of understanding the world in such terms looks really useful and worth exploring.

Between the “Glorious, unconqurable spitefullness which is nearly synonomous with being human”, which made me squeak in delight,  and the view of literature as anthropological, a way of studying humanity as a (messy) whole, I feel like you’re thinking the same kinds of thoughts as me.  Whee!

I also never thought of being a teacher till college.  I suppose I never connected the reading (nad entusiastic sharing) with teachers till a firend pointed it out to me.  But it is as wonderful as it it startling to find that fit.

I find it interesting that you mention that your apporach involves a lot of theory, experience with the literature, and personal ideas fused together.  I know I’m always more comfortable with such an approach than any pure theory alone… I think a lot of us are happier mix and matching that way.

I agree about being responsible for exposure, and even the ideas that I’m not sure I want students looking at lit (or the world) the same way I do.  I think I want them to find the way they do (or can), instead, even if it is diferent from mine. 

The bit about using tricky pieces to raise questions or talk about the confusion or difficulty of a piece is lovely.  sometimes it isn’t about understanding, or having the right answer, or even thinking there is an answer somewhere… just asking questions.  And helping students figure out not just that they can continue studying, or that it may be not just possible but worthwhile, is one of the things I also see as a major teacher’s goal (rather more than ‘giving answers’).

There are multiple answers for why we are here, and simple ones.  I think none of us will disagree that we couldn’t be happy being anything else, or maybe even just could not be.  Gramsci’s organic intellectual originally was, maybe, is the person who must think, cannot not think about the world, (like the quotes about the compulsion to write), and left ‘organic’ because they hadn’t hat an opportunity to be otherwise.  Ithe class loyalties and comittment to social change are part of it, a big part, but maybe at least partly the result of this inequality, and not just the cause?  it does make me wonder to what degree our intellectual ‘status’ is, well, volentary.

Learning the reality of academic labor (especially adjuncting) and its attendant financial politics also shocked me, when I heard.  I think it’s wonderful you have found opportunities in this kind of exposure.  And I agree that college level english is important, a way to teach students that they have acess to spaces they might not have considered, a way to actively participate in the ideas and realities of higher education.

I like how you identify yourself as an “intellectual of change” (and also explain what that term means to you).  It’s really clear you’ve put a lot of thinking into what you do and don’t want out of a classroom.  I agree with you, really, about trying to build an open and sharing classroom, one where learning can flow both ways, as well as questioning the helpfulness of jargon or certian common academic structures.

your description of your field is very clear and I can hear how much you’re interested in it.  It may not be a field I’ve thought about before, but now I can see through your eyes why it matters.  The degree to which race is socially constructed is clear, but I wonder how we deal with the fact it is also …ah, I don’t even know how to say it, but historically constructed?  that is, made or influenced in certain drections by the environments, both environmental and human, that surround it and have the power to shape it?

I agree with your argument that multicultural works need to be not segregated but multiply taught across multiple genres.  There is something to be learned from having the works f one group (howsoever defined) put together to find patterns, but also something to be learned in comparing or contrasting in a larger pattern.  And not just diiferent genres, but different classes, different professors, different theories as well as differing cultures.  all of those intersections are critical (and interesting).

I like the way you offer responsibility to the same authors who wrote and the community you are working (in, around, or for).  It is someting that deosn’t quite realte to my own field, since I’m reaching for broad and cross-connected ideas, and this kind of focused group history and responsibility deosn’t come up much, but I like the idea now I’ve seen it and I can see the way it is a valuable concept to keep (and to teach).  I also like the idea of academic labor being useful to comment on society and social relatability.  It is interesting to see how works (and their perceptions, and analysis, and reception) change over time or with different contexts.  It reall is fascinating.

Oh, dear… it’s like you’re in my brain

I completely sympathize with the shame and uncertainty around the reading of theory.  I have also had such experiences, that I think I know what it basically is, but constantly feeling in error, like what I understand isn’t the same thing everyone else is talking about.  It is much easier for me to announce what I’m thinking or reading, than try to report on and incorporate other people’s theories.  (my cheat-fix is make up my own…still in progress though).

You’re tying together gramsci and buddhist teachings?  oh my, that is wonderfully done.  I can see the care you have for the people of your past and your class, and that care, and choice, makes a lot of sense in what we got of buddhist attitudes towards teaching.

And, again, I agree with you that the high, technical jargon of academia, while important, isn’t exactly something most students will find useful in the classroom.  A lot of the ideas and theories are doing good work, but they’re at the wrong end of the learning process for most students to start with.  I myself am a fan of clear, understandbale language…and while I see how some terms and technicalizing is needed, sometimes it just seems to be used to make the author sound smart, or acaemic, and sometimes how ‘difficult’ a piece is, is seen as a substitute for how intellectual or knowlegable it may be.  (and if it comes to throwing stones, you and I are on the same side of the firing line in this).

Given your philosophizing, I can see why culture is where it is on your priorities list.  I also agree that it is one of the things that makes our work meaningful, that interconnectedness.  (and, you managed that in a very nice articulate burst I may quote elsewhere.  Well crafted!)

I can definately see the realationship between academic writing and shame – and I completely understand that moment of being both proud and ashamed, knowing that the things you believe may not be exactly what others expect, but proud in your hard-won belief.  And it looks coherent to me, philosophy and pedagogy and history and the future.  I can tell you that I see nothing here for you to be ashamed of (though that rarely helps me).

And your last line is gold.  We are all shaped by our pasts and contexts, but that doesn’t mean we understand them any better than anybody else.  (aka, I’m just as certain and confused.  yay!)

I’m glad you like the title.  It really is the heart of what I think is important in the world.

I think you’re right about that line, too, the two go hand in hand.  It is finding new things, new ways to say things, and ways to reply to things already said.

I think I didn;t say it clearly enough or had run out of word limits) when I was talking about the cutting edge vs basics.  I do think we should introduce students to the new, fresh, and relevant perspectives, and teaching studnets not just to the edge of their level but enough beyond to give them space to stretch.  I completely agree with you.

What I was trying to say is that it might not be useful to forget to orient our students, to give them background and grounding.  Or to have discussions about differences in interpretation or kind of specialized research if the teacher forgets to include why it matters, what use is it, what do we learn from it.  Too much emphasis on how different scholars look at a text might (if not done carefully) leave studnets without a way to engage the text on their own, form their own ideas and possibiliites or even be unaware that such a thing is possible for just-readers and not “highly specialized scholars”.

I’ve seen teachers (or students heading that direction) who don’t like or don’t value low-level or intro classes, because their interest is in the higher levels of thought, and I’ve seen teachers load up (intro) classes with theory and overspecialized vocablualriy and assumptions that the kids would be lost…and also have no clue why they should care.  I’ve seen teachers (with the best, best of intentions) who give historical analysis and context to students side by side with the texts until not only does the student have no way of making their own analysis, but the teacher wouldn’t accept contradicting the ‘approved’ analysis anyway.  that’s all what I’m saying when I say students need to start at the basics… them, and the text, and open possibilities.  showing ‘expert’ analysis, historical contexts and their influences, and alternative readings should come second, I think, to open possibilities and not close them.

and also, than you for your encouragement!  I’m glad my reasoning was understandable to you, and that I’ve raised questions to explore… that ‘s what I like about the things I read, after all!

I really like the tie you’ve drawn between the archive, power, and authority.  I agree with Rob that this has some interesting connections with hegemony – the gaze that regulates and controls, not just observes.

Actually, I wonder if the Panopticon can work multiple ways in the idea of archive.  Now that I’m thinking about it, it might make sense that the archive itself is imprisoned, is constrained to the assumed (and hidden, literally so) standards and rules of its moderators.  This influence, of course, is both pervasive and invisible.

Next question is, of course, is if the archive or the canon is in the panopticon in Literature, who is the observer?  the reader, the archivist, the teacher, the student?  I mean, who is shaping or reading these works for ‘fit’?  and what assumptions are we making?

I find your argument for taste really interesting, especially as it stands in relation to forgetting.  There is a way in which they’re opposites, as you explain… but there’s also a way in which they’re very similar in standing in opposition to the ‘usual’ way of knowing.

It occurred to me to read this emphasis on taste back through the idea of the archive and the repertoire, tasting is a present, fleeting and bodily knowledge that is very different from the archived knowledge of what the food or flavor is.

It also popped into my head that tasting is also a way of knowing-by-forgetting.  It means forgetting the memories or ideas or facts of the thing to focus on the presence, the taste in the present.  It is a very different sort of thing to immerse oneself in the moment and taste, and not simply have known, have learned that something tastes like that.

Playing devil’s advocate, here, I guess that the senses tell us things that are good for us, or at the least our survival under the conditions that they assume us to be in (historically speaking).  But survival is not the same thing as living (what we want to live as), what benefits us individually isn’t always the best when weighed against what we need collectively or socially (how we live together), and the things our senses assume we need isn’t always true of the situation we are actually in (we are now capable of gaining such *to excess*).  After all, these instincts are pre-loaded, and environmental factors may vary!

I really like the way you manage to balance the integrate both the very canonical texts and more contemporary and ethnic texts in your archive.  I agree, some of the texts that speak to me the loudest wouldn’t mean nearly as much if I hadn’t come to them from other texts, and sometimes the texts are as valuable for the questions they raise, or the way we refuse or resist them, as texts which we only agree with.

Your analogy of a braid is very apt and (dare I say) layered.  There are many different strands being woven together, and all of them have to work together (even when that means crossing each other) or everything falls apart.  This is true in cultural readings, or in classrooms, or in archives, or in living.

I think it would be pretty neat to be able to introduce Halberstam to that class on a Doll’s House, and it seems to fit the subject really well.  I do wonder to what degree are we prepared to take those theories seriously… maybe Nora did fail (I was always of two minds regarding her choices), and it mightn’t be wrong to disagree with her.  But the ability to ask why, or to figure out what we believe (of gender, responsibility, or family) and take it as a piece that is struggling with issues of autonomy and not just ‘having the answers’, or looking at the ways failure works or doesn’t work in the novel might be an equally valuable way of approaching the text.

As for the Arab American women’s lit, its clear you found a lot in it that works with your class and your ideas.  It can be a way of challenging binaries or accepted notions, or allowing other voices to be heard.  I myself have tended to look to sci-fi and fantasy rather than ethnic literature for these kinds of interruptions to canon, but it is really important that it speak to the teacher and that you can teach your passion for it.

I wasn’t talking opposition but different ways of dividing, I think, not a binary but talking about nonbinary divisions… I tend not to think of books by authors, so things like ethnicity or authorial membership aren’t what I’m judging a book by.  I have read books by ethnic or female writers, but I don’t group them as such, but by topic and so on.

I can see a number of ways these kinds of postcolonial texts can be useful in complicating or overturning archives and narratives.  I really like your eloquent analysis of the ways in which political movements are constructed has a lot more to do with the stories those in power want to tell than the ideas at hand.  The same actions, for the same reasons are ‘terrorism’ in one hand, and ‘patriotism’ in another, a crusade or a jihad (and nevermind the *actual* history involved!).

These kinds of inclusions look like they would be most effective set against and interrupting a Eurocentric discourse.  Perhaps the archive (personal, class, or cultural) even needs to include some of these texts just so they can be blown up by the alternative perspective.  And there well might be some perspectives sympathetic to the postcolonial view to be found in euro-texts.

I like the way you use A Grain of Wheat to show the divergent ways of reading the political movement, it puts the ideas from your beginning into concrete terms.  I am probably going to say this wrong, but let me try anyway… I tend to be cautious about using terms like “find the truth” or “real facts”, mostly because I usually find life way too complicated not to question absolutes.  That doesn’t mean I disagree with your reading, just it makes more sense to me to think of it as alternative narratives, as questioning one absolute reading, as showing both sides as they think they are.  And, too, I like questions more than answers… I get more mileage out of asking why Eurocentric discourse doesn’t see things the same way and what we should do with the discrepancy, than trying to replace one narrative with the other.

thanks, I think the queering fits the things I like to do with these texts rather well (prior term was ‘cognitive estrangement”, which works but is bulky).

Yeah, there’s a few interesting things on time in the text that I picked up on.  The narrative itself is decidedly nonlinear, it jumps through space and time.  There’s also a lot of queer time going on, in the historical sense (history gets seriously skewed and reinvented by being so translated), in the biological sense (that a number of points of relative time get brought up, reaction times, queer and impossible motions and reactions), and quite a few discussions about how time makes things necessary, possible, impossible, and generally strange.  One of the languages/cultures is both nonlinear and nonrational, so there are a few interesting things about time and understanding there as well.

If you’re interested in the book, you can try online at baen.com – the ebook was up there for a while.  Or remind me in class and I’ll copy my folder via thumb drive.

Yeah, I see what you mean by canonization of history.  It is funneled through her, and I can see both the limitations of her knowledge (that she only knows the hegemonic history, not possible alternatives), and the way she herself is controlling and shaping the canon.

I didn’t write it here, but one of the things that interested my was she holds all of this history (or at least the details), but we do see others who know some, laymen’s knowledge rather than studied, and they give alternate views, challenging and questioning her assumptions… and it is because of them that she lets go of that control, and gives what she knows over to the children.  because she can’t control it, she can’t ignore possibilities for possibilities, and she has to accept her canon and her narrative isn’t the only possible answer.

Yeah, the ship was humans from a future, more advanced time.  they then were the aliens for the natives of that world

Essentializing is something people do quite a bit, even when they don’t want to believe it.  I can see the assumptions they make in essentializing racialized literature, and I can agree with some of the points (insider’s view and interpretation) I still disagree with a number of others (outsider analysis and a broader view).

That you talk about African-American literature as a part of who you are resonates with me.  The things we are drawn to, that matter, do not always correlate with the things others think we should.  I know quite a few people have asked, or suggested, that I should be interested in ethnic Indian or Indian-American literature because my parents were from India, and the idea that it isn’t part of who I am doesn’t make sense to them.

And, as far as privilege goes, it is a broad terms and perhaps not quite so unproblematic as we sometimes assume.  there are ways in which I have been unaccountably privileged, have had opportunities that many others have not… and ways in which I have struggled, bloodily so, in ways I have not seen many others need to.  I don’t quite know what to do with that, I know the first would have people disqualify me for empathizing with other people’s struggles (especially those categorized as “severe”), but I can’t forget the second which is what resonates their troubles to mine.  Perhaps it is a kind of arrogance, to equate my largely nonphysical troubles with others’ embodied ones, but it is real enough to me that I don’t know what else to do with them.  I suppose what I’m saying, to get back to this comment of yours on knowing the state of your relative privilege, that it maybe matters more that you do connect, that you are empathizing, and that you share… something with these authors, than it matters that an outsider looking at your life might not see obvious connections.

I also kinda have to wonder to what degree this distinction, this expectation, is another kind of marginalization.  “minority” teachers should teach “minority” classes, and have “minority” interests, and might also learn and teach [term?  canonical?  Euro-American?  “normal”?] classes, but for the mainstream to choose the “marginal” is problematic.  It reminds me of the ways, historically, that it was always less dangerous an idea for a woman to want to appropriate a man’s role than a man to e feminized, or another race or ethnicity to want to Europeanize or westernize, than the reverse of going native – because the assumption that the latter were more powerful and preferable than the former was assumed and understood.

I understand, and agree with your idea that you should not have to justify your race or your reasons for your interests.  It really isn’t something that should have to e defended, even though people will probably keep asking.  The only thing you can do, I suppose, is exactly what you have been working at – showing your passion and understanding for the material, breaking down the essentialism, and undermining the fallacy that we can’t ever relate to others “unlike us”.

I find your essay really compelling – the interconnection between the politics, culture, and educational philosophies of the area you were in, and the reasons they were difficult.  It’s obvious that you have a clear vision of the kind of work you want to do, and the kind of teacher you want to be – and that you have the courage to keep working for it, even when in an unwelcoming environment.

I can say I have seen similar practices in some places.  the “student as customer” model is something that seems really dangerous to me, and also maybe slyly political.  Making taxpayers (and workers) happy, obedient, and unquestioning is a not unhappy outcome to those in power, instead of critical, questioning citizens (and activists) who might think instead of follow blindly.

As for students being more comfortable with a banking system, I’ve seen it too.  When they’re used to it, when it is what they know and expect, it seems to them to be safer.  When I was in India, I spent quite a bit of time in each class I talked to encouraging them to ask questions and have opinions – sometimes a quarter of the class time spent in silence (with only my cajoling) before getting the first question or response.  I had it easier in that I wasn’t there quite so long and was not so much at the mercy of the administration (as a guest), I can only imagine how hard it was with resistance from both the students and the administration.  Maintaining your “emancipatory’ method in the face of this opposition took courage, and leaving rather than compromising your principles was likewise both honest and honorable.  I salute you.

I understand what you mean about travel opening new boundaries.  I know I learned a lot in India just being able to compare different ways to teaching and learning – and I know mom talked to me about her transition from the Indian school system to the American (both difficult and rewarding).  I personally admit I like the openness and flexibility possible in the American school system a lot, I personally prefer discussing things more than lecturing, and I care more that someone can think up an idea and communicate it than whether they can prove they’ve read a work by recalling details or whether every point of grammar corresponds to a textbook.

There’s a paradox, I’m sure, in a teaching model that gives so much authority to a teacher, but allows them to be questioned if they should choose not to exercise it autocratically.  I wonder, would it be easier or much harder if students so conditioned to obedience would allow this kind of democratic teaching just because the teacher has the right to demand even such incomprehensible things of them?  Or is it a twisted and counterintuitive kind of a good sign that they have been given enough free will to resist?

Your academic journey is really powerful, connecting your own experiences and beliefs with the larger social and administrative context in which you have been learning and teaching.  I really agree that you would be a great teacher, your dedication and consistency is clear to me from this essay and things you’ve said previously.

For someone who struggled with vulnerability and this assignment, you managed it superbly.  I also spent some time anxious about some of the personal vulnerabilities that I put in my essay, but I think the point is well made that the vulnerability is what makes it so powerful… it is just so hard when we’re trying it ourselves.

I admit I’m not much familiar with dancing culture and its requirements, but you explain very well the trap of perfectionism and extreme discipline and, well, extremes and obsession.  That eating disorders are normal for dancers, that a book would tout eating so little (when injured!) as a viable and natural choice… I wonder how much of what you later call your ‘inability to keep yourself together’, which you seem to refer to as weakness, is something that is just there in the culture, in the expectations a dancer must place on their body.  anyone can hold up against extreme conditions for a while, how long and to what degree depends on the person… but I’m not sure if holding out longer is necessarily the best thing, or if it just means more time to be damaged before calling for help (and that kinda wasn’t about you or how your friends may or may not be coping, your friends as much as it was a reflection on some of my own self-destructive habits and tendencies.  my stubbornness has occasionally worked against me).

I really see what you mean about the academic’s similarity to dance.  the call for self discipline, and that that discipline can sometimes manifest in ways that seem… unnatural to me, or maybe I mean destructive (like analyzing what we read… instead of liking it.  Or reading in ways that Sedgewick called paranoid, without a way out.  Or the strange juxtaposition of originality and the need to work within a canon of terms and scholarly discourse.)

I don’t know if, ultimately, academia is safer or better than dance.  I think there might be more ways in, and more ways out, because the mental gymnastics it has to accommodate have enough variety to be more flexible than the physical.  Maybe it matters that we find a place that fits, more than intrinsic ‘better-ness’, a better fit is less likely to send us diving for the extremes?  In any case, feeling safer here seems like a good thing.

I find your writing in this essay to be both honest and personal.  It can be hard (at least it is for me) to think about why I react to some things the way I do, and harder still to acknowledge when they show things about me that I didn’t think I was.  The way you look at the issue of therapy in light of your own experiences and your reaction to Bechdel seems to me to be critical and analytic, but also affective and understanding.

I kinda understand some of your reservations about Bechdel – I also empathize with what she’s trying to do (and does), but like you my own experiences has me skeptical in places where her experiences didn’t match my own.  That section out of Fromm’s book seems a little ishy to me as well – I’m not sure how seriously that kind of “fact” can be taken.  Maybe Fromm was metagaming, starting with the answer clear in retrospect and pre-justifying it on the body, finding the photographic ‘proof’ after the fact.  Or something.  Didn’t phrenology (the “science” of telling personality by the physical characteristics, especially the head) fall way, way out of favor?

I can follow your reasoning as to why your own experiences do not mirror Bechdel’s, but also the consternation you write in realizing the question didn’t occur to you until later.  I have done the same thing – just because the answer is ‘no’, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have thought to ask the question.  finding my motives can be hidden from myself is always disconcerting.

The way you talk about your younger self and the way you’ve changed is powerful.  when you’re writing about how it seems dreamlike, you highlight how different you are now than what you were.  On the other hand, your ability to accept yourself for what you are, and accept change highlights (ironically) your personal sense of integrity.  Maybe its just me, but being confident enough to allow myself to change means that I know that I will still be me afterwards (contradictory, but real).  And this kind of integration shows in your resolution to balance the critical eye and the ability to feel rather than discarding one for the other.

Sorry for the delay, it wasn’t posting right.

the question of normalcy s a tricky one.  It is becoming more viable to question the norm, but some of that depends on which norm is being questioned and to what degree.  I would also say, it may be human to question things, but I’m less certain that that is only humans who do this (or that I question only as a product of my ‘humanity’).  Especially when the questions I ask are considered very abnormal, or the practices that are explicitly labelled human (all humans do this, its human nature, everyone does) sometimes are present in multiple (highly divergent) cultures, and so might well be something very human… and I still question them or outright disagree with them anyway.

I can see both sides of the issue – on the one hand, I realy, really like the freedom for new vioces and texts.  On the other, it can be very valuable to have enough of a common overlap that we can talk to each other.  So maybe I don’t thnk Shakespeare should be exalted, but on the other hand, it is both good and important enough in the field that it has to be taught, just for its historical role.

I agree, its not so simple as placing non canonical works on a pedastal.  There are many works within the canon that I like, find significant, value.  I’m skeptical about the judgement passed on them, maybe, or about having a work pre-judged.  and I also know being skeptical is not always right, too – there are books I tiptoed around because they were exalted, that I actually liked once I read them, probably just as many that I read and disliked.

Yeah 😛

It sounds more fun than it is.  It tends to be more “Am I missing something, it doesn’t even talk about X or I need factor Y to even try putting these things together or when they’re saying it simply is either this/or that, how do I talk about Z which isn’t precisely either?

I know what you mean, there’s so much from this course that speaks so powerfully.

The book looks really interesting, and I can see the connection to the feminist killjoys in Blake’s text to the ones that Ahmed talks about.  The eye-rolling connection is really interesting, the sentiments (if not the actual action) seem to translate very well, here.  I also really like the question of vision you bring up, who might notice?  the character, the author, the reader, or others, if such eye-rolling or minimalizing did take place?

Causing the argument – hah!  It is familiar ground, to blame the person noticing something that’s wrong (and something I’ve seen all over the place, not just for feminism).  I like the idea of both sides seeing the other’s viewpoint, but what usually happens is if one is more reasonable than the other, they get plowed under (two to zero, or two yesses versus a one yes and one no cancelling out), or if they’re not then its just an explosion or a war of an argument.  finding myself often in the former camp, I admit the latter looks more appealing some days.

The distinction between being about unhappiness vs. what one is unhappy about is really powerful (something that I kinda missed in the original, glad I got it here).  especially there is such a strong idea in this culture that doing things for others is good, for ourselves is bad… and so reading the killjoy as selfish, concerned with individual unhappiness is a much weaker (and possibly less threatening?) position to place the troublemaker into.

It makes sense to me as well, that we should, and should encourage our students to, explore, identify and make connections.  And that everyone should try to look at things differently, explore ways of knowing that wouldn’t have occurred to them otherwise, and think (deeply so) about why.  And when we see a trend like academia’s drive to the impersonal, emotionless, and logical – ask why not, why not include the strange, the emotional, and the unexpected.

I know what you mean, there’s so much from this course that speaks so powerfully.  it’s hard for me to choose what to stand out!

Your paper looks interesting.  the book sounds like it stacks up well with Ahmed’s chapter on the Feminist Killjoy.  The eye-rolling connection is really interesting, the sentiments (if not the actual action) seem to translate very well, here.  And added to that is the question of who might notice if or when this eye-rolling or minimalizing did take place? Would it be the character, the author, the reader, others?  There’s so many possible meanings for it.

Causing the argument – hah!  It is familiar ground, to blame the person noticing something that’s wrong (and something I’ve seen all over the place, not just for feminism).  I like the idea of both sides seeing the other’s viewpoint, but what usually happens is if one is more reasonable than the other, they get plowed under (two to zero, or two yesses versus a one yes and one no cancelling out), or if they’re not then its just an explosion or a war of an argument.  Finding myself often in the former camp, I admit the latter looks more appealing some days.

The distinction between being about unhappiness vs. what one is unhappy about is really powerful (something that I kinda missed in the original, glad I got it here).  Especially since there is such a strong idea in this culture that doing things for others is good, for ourselves is bad… and so reading the killjoy as selfish, concerned with individual unhappiness is a much weaker (and possibly less threatening?) position to place the troublemaker into.

It makes sense to me as well, that we should, and should encourage our students to, explore, identify and make connections.  And that everyone should try to look at things differently, explore ways of knowing that wouldn’t have occurred to them otherwise, and think (deeply so) about why.  And when we see a trend like academia’s drive to the impersonal, emotionless, and logical – ask why not, why not include the strange, the emotional, and the unexpected.

Also on the issue of seeing both sides of the issue, there’s a quote that explains the mindset of those who don’t – not one I agree with (or even the view of the original quoter, just an illustration of polarization), but one that illustrates that it can be dangerous to be the only side seeing both viewpoints.

(and, sorry for the strange double-post above… computer issues again).

lesswrong.com, section Politics is the Mindkiller – “Arguments are soldiers. Once you know which side you’re on, you must support all arguments of that side, and attack all arguments that appear to favor the enemy side; otherwise it’s like stabbing your soldiers in the back – providing aid and comfort to the enemy” — Eliezer Yudkowsky 

Mwahaha… the idea that believing in happiness (as constructed) is a delusion is priceless, and quite in keeping with the texts

The emphasis of place is really strong here, and tying place to the happiness scripts works really well in your analysis of cultural exchange dynamics and foreign-ness.

I catch your point about foreign-ness and hegemonic structure.  Its true that Americans are generally not expected to adapt to other cultures (as I have seen in my own travels) but expected to expect others to accommodate to them irregardless of whose ‘home ground’ they’re on.  I double the expects because this isn’t really neutral, many of the stereotypes of arrogant, ignorant, or uncaring Americans (especially tourists) are a reaction against this attitude, and even Americans may not want to be (or be seen as) this kind of person.

Ah, your own experiences are valid, especially since what you experienced is not just privileged, but also includes uncertainty, difficulty, fear, being outside not only culturally but legally.  It isn’t the exactly the same, I agree, but it never is… just similar enough to draw on, to empathise, to understand enough.

The negatives of an exchange experience are definitely there, its clear you’ve seen them – people who can be terrible, ideals that are not actualized, hopes that remain unmet.  But culture shock need not always be terrible, and cultural differences need not always be shock (at least in theory, although trauma seems to be more the norm than not in some situations).  And a student going into the exchange with high hopes may be hit harder by this failure to meet expectations than the actual experience of this jerk or that bigot or the other stereotyping nut.

Not understanding is enough to drive anyone nuts, and worse is those not trying to understand, not even caring.  Playing happy for approval or because its expected may get approval, but I doubt it brings understanding (and not saying its wrong, just maybe that the tradeoff is that things won’t get better without squeaking wheels).

I will also say that some professors acknowledge difference, some don’t – and some do it well, and some not.  And likewise sometimes it can be a dismissal or marginalization not to have that space, or difficult or offensive for students to be asked, or an opportunity to share something of value.  It goes back to understanding, I think, and how much the professor (or the classroom dynamic) is willing to make space and accept students for what they are (and not).

I think its really important that you can open a space for the unhappiness of these students, or the ways in which the happiness scripts may exclude them or pigeonhole them into certain ways of being.  To acknowledge the alienation.  But it might be useful to think about those who do have positive experiences, who do not find their expectations closed.  Maybe they are accessing different kinds of (cultural) happiness scripts, maybe their experiences are difficult or complicated in other ways.

Your argument, and your proposed dissertation, sound really interesting.  I really like the opening of a space and the inclusion of negative possibilities and alienation.

Yes, I think it can be – or, perhaps, the metaphor of parent and child is what is there in the depths of so many relationships of power.  It is not just an imbalance, but an imbalance with a story, a rationale, a built in defense.

I would see colonizer and colonized as  cultural versions of this adult/child concept, colonized countries are termed third world, less developed, backward, young… while others are more developed, advanced, first world.  Teacher and student is more of the same, emphasis on teaching, nurturing, giving lessons, all in loco parentis.

It seems to me to be very rare to have raw power differences at the heart of a conflict, without the stronger taking a parental rhetoric (“know what’s best”, “for your own good”, “you will learn” and so on).  Because it is such a strong and versatile metaphor, because it justifies a relationship of tyranny that may be needed (or may not be, depending), and because it is designed to be unarguable (would you give a child something so dangerous? how could you!).

probably chaotically…

I have a very strong idea of what I would like a classroom to be.  I really don’t like the idea of a teacher centered classroom, of being the authority, of obedient students, of just order.  When I was in te classrooms, lecturing, I did my best to avoid these things.

Yeah, it makes life difficult.  chaos… is like that.

I want to see a bit of chaos in my classroom, students who have a voice, people coming up with alternatives and hunting down and bringing in random possibilities and lots of disagreements (but not viciously so).  I would like to be someone who finds paths and offers alternatives, gets gears moving but not controlling where they’ll end up.

How will that work in a classroom?  I suspect not terribly efficiently.  Maybe the students are too, too used to order and can’t handle a teacher who won’t give good guidelines, maybe the administration will find it too headache inducing, maybe parents will have conniptions over what is going on in their child’s class, maybe I’ll just find it too hard to make work.  Ah, well.  I still plan to try.  I think it can do so much good, that anyone, everyone knows and thinks and learns so much better when the doors are more open, and students have to practice *thinking* and not *guessing the teacher’s passwords*.

I also think that the easier something is to do, the easier it is to undo.  and, so the more effort going into something, the longer it’ll stick.  School, and academic culture in general, is so *heavily* built on order, on consistency, on having things done the right way at the right time with the right work shown that it’s really difficult to deviate, sometimes, from what’s expected.  Adding chaos to the mix, and worse, trying to add controlled chaos, is madness.  But something I see as so valuable, and worth doing.

Very nice!

I like the examples you’ve chosen to reflect on.  The idealization of certain times or actions (often historical) is rampant, and it seems to be an important tool for disseminating happiness scripts, both those of perceived history and the now in which they are created and disseminated.

The female troublemaker and the feminist killjoy… I agree just the act of not enjoying, or not wanting the thing they are ‘supposed’ to want can be itself a killjoy (it doesn’t have to be starting arguments, though that’s fun too).

I’m not sure how much the subject (middle/upper class women) is simply problematic and how much it is simply the script, the happiness script of the culture.  I think that probably didn’t sound right.  I mean, given the racial, class and gendered nature of happiness scripts, I wonder if this film might be a site for finding problematic elements in the cultural happiness scripts, and not itself a problem choice for such a script because of its exclusions.

I can see how well you’d do with these texts – its really fascinating to me.  popular culture is rich with layers of meaning, and so can be carefully analyzed… but it is also dear to students, so they should care (very much) about how it is analyzed.  This combination can be a very powerful tool!

Addressing the first part of your comment, there is a binary between bad-old times and good enlightened now, but I think there’s another possible binary between the good, golden past and the present troubled times.  I mean, so many historical moments get romanticized, likely because those past things were good to some, and those who would or think they would benefit are those who romanticize them.

And yeah, looking at every ill does sometimes does come across as polarizing all groups into subsets of ills.  It becomes too difficult to speak generally, then.

Yeah, when we read it in class some of these critiques came up.  They have a lot of textual support, too.

But that doesn’t mean its not a good text to tackle issues with – actually, it may be the best way to deal with them.  after all, we can sometimes get the best critiques out of texts we *don’t* agree with.  It really shows how the cultural scripts differ from the actual truths.

I can see the parallels you are drawing here very clearly between Gramsci and the Arab Spring.  It makes sense that a theory of social disorder should fit well with a group of revolutionary protests.

I also really liked how you positioned the idea that it is the contradiction, or rather when people notice a discrepancy between an ideology and the lived experience that unrest happens, the ideology is rejected as not “true” but a scam benefiting those who have.

The ideas of hegemony and dominance also play out well in your outlines of the politics (unfortunately, I’m not well enough read in politics to offer anything more discerning than that).  Hegemony really works as a divide and conquer, with groups disciplined into the majority which then maintains the majority against other groups.

So now you have a pretty good comparison between Gramsci’s political concepts and the real world politics of the area you’re from.  I think the next question is, what is to be done about it?  Gramsci himself talks about education and intellectual activity as a way through.  Do you see this as a correct response to Arab Springs?  How would it work or what is to be done with it?  How do you see this as shaping (or not) your own teaching or plans for the future?

And, it seems perfectly valuable to me to come out of this reflection with a few good questions, or even just the one you end with – what your responsibility will be before your students.  Perhaps it is even more valuable than coming out with answers (I have sometimes found myself in this position).

The beginning of this paragraph, that those with power convince people to do things not in their best interests, reminds me so strongly of something I once read in a Scott Adams book (possibly the Dilbert Principle)… namely, that leaders *by definition* are trying to get people to do things they don’t want to or aren’t in their interests or just would not do otherwise.  After all, it doesn’t take leadership to get someone interested in eating warm cookies (cause they want to), it does take leadership to convince them to kill or die (cause that’s terrible).

I hope you reach your goal and dream and being a worthy for a full time position soon Janelle.
I really dislike the way that the hegemonic superstructure, unfortunately, deals with professors at the university as tools of teaching and being forced to follow the traditional intellectuals ideology. professors have to follow the department’s ideology for the sake of security and to be tenured. Therefore,  I do agree with you that it might not be difficult to be yourself and say what ever you want to say until you reach that security level and the real  academic freedom.

Thank you all for your great comments.

Dear Lauren, what I meant by saying that, “A political movement against issues like capitalism, sexism, and racism can possibly help, but professors have a unique position within society”, is the way people protest in the street  against such issues. However, the Arab Spring proved that such protests may not solve the problematic to these issues and people end up being killed because they are asking for their rights.

I believe that my job and my position at the university is to help my society to have their voices heard without being harmed. Today technological devices  provides several softwares, such as Twitter and Facebook, that can help as channels that may librate people’s minds and creates the change among the society. Using these devices in the academia can help the organic intellectuals to have a chance through which they can deliver their message.

It is really interesting as you say, “My personal archive is composed of things I have accomplished, FAILED, and what I with to learn” because I do share you the same archive to some extent. What I really want to comment on here and I am sure that I don’t have a good answer for is that why our failures are still archived as part of our memories? Why can’t we get rid of them and move on? I am sure that some of our failures are still there in our memories and we are hunted by them. So, do you think that it is healthy to have them there stored in our minds or we need to ignore them or even find a way to get rid of them?

Thanks dear Julie,

well, I think since we had that chance to take the post-colonilaism class last semester, I stated to care more about such texts and to think about canonical texts that has been written by marginalized authors. such writers take you as readers to think about how the superstructure hegemony would treat their different cultures and locating them within this world. Thinking of myself being from a third world country makes me consider the post-colonialism is my focused field through which the political issues in the Middle East should be identified. As for my Academia, reading and teaching such texts will help my Saudi students to increase their awareness of what is happening around them. They need to identify what kind of future that is waiting for them based on the interpretation of both political and historical issues that most postcolonial texts carry for them.

I really like the way you care about your students as think about inclusion of canonical texts into your classroom. However, as you said,” one would assume works such as Babylon 5 have no place in a scholarly canon”, I am still thinking of who is in charge of making such decision. I think that we should consider what kind of authority that would make such decision or to agree upon a literary text to be canonical archived or not. I still have no specific answer to this question, but I want you also to think about it as well.

I believe that I share you dear Kamal almost the same experience as we both come from third world countries where English language is taught as a foreign language. The lack of the good experienced teachers has impact our learning of the English language. As becoming professionals, we need to take in our minds such barriers that we went through during our learning stage in order to provide our students the best methods of learning that we have been encountering here in the United States.

I see that privatization of the public schools is a universal problem and it is not easy to be controlled. However, being aware of it as a problem may give us the role to do our best effort making our teaching process is more effective and benefitiary for our students as we can.

Dear Sheila,

I find your words really touching and I appreciate sharing your memories with us. In fact, I am still wondering that I do have the same attitude with my mother. I knew that she loves me and I do love her more, but I don’t know why she stopped saying” I love you” long time ago. Today, my mother is the most close person to me in world. Even I am physically far away from her, we are close to each other as we call each other very often. What makes me so uncomfortable that I would like to tell her that “I love you mom”, but I can’t because she does not say it to me either. Today, I am a father of two littel daughters and I am saying “I love you babeis” every day but, I keep asking myself why can’t I say it to my mom too?

Thank you Julie,

In fact, after I came to the United States 2010, my department there started to send other faculties with me to major in literature. Today, we are six faculties in different schools here in the U. S. We all enjoy our new experience and our shift to literature instead of linguistics. As we communicate with each other from time to time, we all agree the when we go back to our English department At Qassim University, we have to start a change in our department. First, our English department should consists of three routes or areas of study: literature, linguistics, and translation. Students should decide their track as they finish the first year studying English skills. For the literature track, we plan to adopt a literature program from one of the American Universities because we lack the good experience for this matter. What I think out of this memoir that we need multi-ethnic texts as part of our program in order to have a varieties of English texts that make our students more aware of the varieties of the texts that have been in the canon up to the moment. Of course, multi-ethnic texts as part of the comparative literature studies will give our students a chance to be creative because authors of such texts usually discuss issues that may find their interest.

I do really agree with you Kamal. However, the change of the co-education will not be easy though. The ideology of the hegemonic structure in many Arabic countries is based on theIslamic principals or Sharia. So, it is difficult to go againist those principals because that will be against the hegemonic structure of your country. What we both need is an extra caution as we bring in our pedagogical philosophy what we have studied here in the U.S. Therefore, our mission of liberation and change is accompanied with many risks that need to be considered.

Dear Matt,

I love your title here.  As we all are cautious about our future and we are working hard for a better one, your title makes me think what if we live to a future of failure!

Thank you Janelle.

I do really enjoy sharing your thoughts here. What I see among many international students, as being one of them, that we usually enjoy sharing and comparing our experiences of our home culture with the new culture we live in. Sometimes, we may find it very comforting and relieving to compare between the two experiences. I think that some of the international students are exposed to such new cultural experiences before even taking them. Therefore, I would say that few days, weeks or moths might be enogh to live the moments that we have been exposed to of a long time ago.

Perhaps the choice of words was inadvertent, but the phrase “Too many times I feel like we are always on a journey” caught my attention.  Juxtaposing this image of constant motion, development against the overall theme of “holding a position” seems central to me.  I feel almost as though in the perspective you present that there is an understood nirvana at the end, a physical place of security for the professor and a mental plane of understanding.  For myself, I am frightened of definitive ends and I embrace the process as the answer, but I can see the allure of such an philosophy.

In the classroom, you portray yourself as the facilitator for the student on “the journey,” encouraging the wealth to be harvested from the uncertain stance, in questioning.  You offer the lesson that “there is value in not fully understanding,” and I agree entirely.  However, the outlook is equally valid for student and teacher alike, as they consider the process of learning through interaction as a very real, very pertinent adventure.

You hit upon the problem of dealing with classes (in the Marxist sense).  The effectiveness of the individual in the face of the resistance of an entire class seems futile on the surface.  Yet, the process must begin somewhere.  And, in the end (if there is, in fact, ever an end), it might be quixotic, but to remain faithful to what one perceives as right is the least (and the most) that we can do, whether it is in the name of change or the maintenance of the status quo.

It is probably a sign of my own slowness, but I was exactly 25 when I met someone for the first time who told me they had always dreamed of their job and had achieved fulfillment by attaining it.  I honestly had thought that the concept of a “calling” was purely metaphoric and the experience utterly confused me.  What beeswax had stopped my ears from hearing the siren call of my own destiny?  What had gone wrong with me or was internally malfunctioning that I remained “uncalled?”  The imperatives of subsistence, I think, are morally and socially confused with the imperative of existence.

As Gramsci presents the binaries between intellectual types and the function within production of the intellectual and the non, I cannot help but consider the hierarchies involved.  We want to be organic intellectuals, of course, as the better of the two.  And we want to have an intellectual function, as the better of the two choices within production.  Consider, however, the place of the artist within this frame.  The sculptor who produces an object of beauty which evokes emotion which may lead to a moral or practical lesson works skillfully with their hands to manufacture a physical entity.  Is it a function of the sculptor’s mind, primarily?  Is there a hierarchy between this work and that of a machinist who creates (and recreates within a factory) an item of utility?  Why, when both fabricate artifacts that serve a function?  Why would we tend to think of the artist as being called to such work and not the factory worker?

Terrorist?  Put on the beret and call yourself a Guardian Angel, instead.

The change is fine for me. We do have some student commuters, though, that might have an issue.

I would suggest that the knowledge of being observed is, itself, a form of hegemony.  The observing gaze is not a blank one, but comes with presupposed standards which must be recognized by those colonized by that gaze.  Its mere existence is an enforcement of those standards since even seeming conflict with them will always be a dangerous proposition.  Super fascinating stuff!  On the one hand, the Panopticon maintains the ephemeralness of a metaphor, but it is so obviously presentable in the interactions of societal power.

I like the way this is posed from the philosophical side, but it is directly applicable to us in our literary studies, where the characters in fiction stand in for the prisoners, bound to their prescribed areas and we are the observers who twist them as we will.  The phenomenal cosmic power!

I have a long standing opinion that Sesame Street is the finest program in the history of television.  Not for the excellent work it has done in basic education and socialization, but purely for entertainment.  When there is nothing on, I can put Sesame Street on and nearly always count on winding up in hysterics, laughing, or utterly charmed.  By way of proof, one of my favorite clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w

I absolutely agree with your project of showcasing the ways that animation focuses on positive messages of possibility that help to counter the realities of failure by opening new ways of considering the continuum of winning/losing.  Frankly, I admire your own positive take on the application of such possibilities (if fed to an audience who believes, why might they not act on those beliefs rather than submitting to disillusion as inevitable?).  I concur completely with the need for change that you respond to, although, I must admit that my visualization of my own part is one of the stubborn antagonizer, rather than the beatific reformer.  Perhaps I should interrogate my stance more thoroughly before adopting it.

On the one hand, I envy you the experience of approaching the canon with fresh eyes.  On the other, it seems like an insurmountable amount of work to do so, and that you can have.  In fact, I know it is an insurmountable amount of work because I’ve been making inroads into this crap my whole life, and they still only amount to piddling goat-trails.  I admire how you have transformed your initial position in regard to literature (coming at it from the margins) into a formal approach, both theoretical and pedagogical which will be of value to your students as you continue on your educational career.
 
I understand the uses of the fear of failure as a motivator to spur yourself on to greater efforts, greater success, and I’m not about to try to talk you down from that.  Academic competition mirrors competition we see inherent in the economies upon which our lives really do depend (no joke).   That said, I trust that Halberstam had some effect in helping to offer perspective on defining the failed as another area of marginalia that links into your own area of concentration.

The single greatest categorization, that of humanity, seems to be the one most fundamentally disputed here.  As always, it is worthwhile to examine definitions so that we are all on the same page, but this is one term that seems to rootedly underlie everything else, escaping examination.  Theories in postcolonialism, feminism, disabilities all focus on exclusionary practices that embody various ideologies of the past and present which limited everyone’s access to the rights and benefits of that biological family.  In the end, this practice tends to posit exceptions that should be actively noticed and attended to, with a goal of actively correcting them in accord with the ideals of social justice.  Of course, the other way to look at that is that is in the way that Samuels does, as a trend towards homogenizing the experience of individuals into a single narrative, that of the human.

That said, the discourse of alienation and isolation that explicates your experience might not be said to be equal to the experience of others, but I think there is a sufficient analogy to reach others affectively, which can only work to your benefit when you come to expound your own theories.

You know, someone, somewhere cataloged the Rosetta Stone as an artifact. Probably many someones.  Not everyone can be the Champollion to synthesize every find, but that does not deny worth of the original archivist.  I guess what I’m getting at is a commitment to the intrinsic value of unexplored possibilities, the belief that every artifact can have its Champollion.

I recently read this work for another class.  The intro is centered around Gilman’s WOMEN AND ECONOMICS, situating the social darwinism of the piece as American as apple-pie in the centrality of commodification.  Thought you might enjoy.
Michaels, Walter Benn. The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism: American Literature at the Turn of the Century. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987. Print.

Strange as it is, the business (if you’ll excuse the term) that we are in is part and parcel of the deferment of happiness.  In the mill that produces productive, responsible citizens, we play our parts, accept our pay, on the understanding that what we contribute will enhance the lives of our students’ futures.  I suppose that is why I focus so strongly on the past, since it seems to have a lure of recoverability, even if that lure is purely illusory.  Past, present, and future fall as broad categories to fill in the things that can be subject to social critique.  Knowing their illusory nature, I suppose the thing to do is to settle down with the terms for what illusion suits us best.  One of social justice?

I would be remiss if I did not link you another link back.  Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x92Pdf7LYJ4

As we discussed in Dr. Downing’s class, way back when, the change in perception about then-to-now has two sides (binaries!) in that we tend to put space between the bad old times and our current, obvious enlightenment, drawing the conclusion that social justice has been achieved. All of which obscures residual chronic persistence of cultural conflicts.  I think, from our readings, that Cvetkovich addresses this most fully.  At the same time as I admire her championing every ill, I sometimes feel like the result of it is not a recognition of the human condition, but particalizing of humanity into subsets of ills.

I really think that the primary advice for any pedagogue, no matter the medium in which they choose to express themselves, is to recognize how legitimately affected you are by your subject matter.  From this text, and from the discussions in class, we all know that this speaks to you, personally.  The energy of passion cannot help but incite your readership, your students, regardless if they agree with you opinions.  Arousing an interest is the first and most important step in learning.  We might think of learning as activism, in this sense.

This is, overall, an attempt to expand on my first writing assignment, channeling the concept into some practical form with some practical justification.

It seems we share a similar teaching philosophy, Julie.  This paragraph really resounds with me because I am very passionate about trying to make the classroom “fun.”  I don’t about you, but I find this to be difficult at times.  I’ve taught two years of Comp 1 and 2 at my Master’s institution, and I was able to experiment with making writing fun, which, I think, can be more difficult than making literature fun (at least for me).  I’d love to here your ideas on how you would plan an engaging lesson in your classroom.  I often try to hook students into the lesson by using popular culture.   I can tell you’re passionate about being a teacher/intellectual of change, and I know you’ll be a great teacher.  After all, if you’re a lover of learning, then teaching is one of the best professions, especially on the college level.

I really enjoyed reading your essay, Matt, and I can relate to much of what you’re saying.  I always worry (paranoid, in Sedgwick terms) that my writing is too simple and straightforward, that my vocabulary isn’t at the appropriate level for a doctoral student, that my arguments are somehow lacking in theory or I somehow misunderstand the theory.  Therefore, since we seem to have similar feelings, if you ever expand this essay, my suggestion would be to include some of what Sedgwick discusses as paranoia and paranoid reading, for I see this “subject” arising out of your essay.  I hope you’re not offended that I recognize some paranoia in your essay and therefore in you, because I think we are all paranoid in some ways.  Overall, this essay is refreshing to read for it makes me feel less paranoid and ashamed that others feel the same way I do.

I think it’s great that you can make a connection between two seemingly polar opposite cultures, that of academia and that of the restaurant world.  It’s true what you say about a serving job being a rite of passage, at least that’s how people view it my experience.  How many times have you heard fellow workers say, this is just a temporary job so I can make money for school; I’m not a “life-timer.”  I admit that I am guilty of saying this.  But we marginalize those who are “life-timers” in the restaurant business, and this view especially applies to serving, I think.

Restaurant culture is particularly apt for practicing low theory.  It’s more “real world” than animated film.

Superb use of chrononormativity!  You really put this idea into perspective for me and in a way that I can relate to.  One of the aspects I disliked most about serving was the hours.  I wanted to work 9-5 so I could have my evenings and weekends free, but that is a privilege, especially if your a student looking for a summer job.  But for students, these hours are acceptable.  If we’re talking about a young adult’s rite of passage, working late hours isn’t supposed to bother them because they stay up late anyways.  For adults with families, these hours are burdensome.  Or perhaps our society is burdensome for these workers because it caters to middle-class people…

Great essay, Lauren!  I really enjoyed reading it and could relate to your experience based on my experiences as a server.  Can I just point out that we are supposed to use the word “server” now instead of “waiter” or “waitress” but, while it tries to be gender neutral, it places people in a subservient position.  You integrated Freeman’s and Halberstam’s concepts very well throughout your essay.  I suggest you should publish something on this topic.  It’s really interesting and may shake people up a bit 🙂

I think this would be a great way to introduce Halberstam to students.  Usually in teaching, at least for me, things don’t always fit together so well or we can’t find an appropriate opportunity to include some of our favorite texts and theories.  I really cherish these learning experiences in my teaching as you had with your Intro to Lit course.  And I’m not very surprised that only one of your students supported Nora’s decision to leave her family.  Hopefully, by exposing students to a text/theory like Halberstam’s, they will question their world more.

This is a great image.  In my women’s literature course focusing on magical realism, we started reading the classic fairy tales, and we talked about how these stories were told mainly by women while performing domestic tasks such as weaving.  This seems very similar to the braid image.  I’m not sure what you can do with this connection, but thought I would share 🙂

Do you typically teach A Doll House and “The Yellow Wallpaper” before the Arab-American short stories?  I wonder if you taught A Doll House and “The Yellow Wallpaper” after if students would pick up on these binaries and issues more readily.  Just food for thought…

I really enjoyed reading your essay, Jaclyn.  I share some of the same teaching principles as you, and I think it’s still important to teach canonical texts.  Oftentimes in class discussion we focus on how the canon is oppressive and so-on-and-so-forth, but most of my favorite books are included in the canon and I think they are worthwhile to expose to students, just as non-canonical texts.

Menia,

I wanted to comment on your second to last paragraph, but for some reason, I’m not able to post a comment there.  It could be the computer I’m using.  Anyway…

I admire your passion for multi-ethnic literature, especially since the subject isn’t typically taught at your university.  In fact, I admire the fact that you’re here, taking courses at an American University where there is a lot more freedom to study the things you want.  From what you say in class, it seems you face a lot of difficulty teaching certain subjects, like queer studies, at your university.  You may have a difficult time ahead of you, but I hope you can help change your university’s department and encourage other students like you to attend PhD programs in literature.

You bring up an important issue here about the canon.  Why are certain works held higher than other? Who has the authority to decide this?  And why does it matter?  I see all of these questions coming up in this paragraph and within you essay.  And you’re right… there are so many great works that are not included in the canon.  I don’t know about you, but I get the sense that the canon doesn’t hold much ground anymore in our discipline.  As I continue through this program, I am reading more and more works that are outside of the canon, so much so that probably 75% of the works I’ve read since last Fall have been outside of the canon.  Hopefully, this will continue in English Lit programs and we will be able to carry this on outside of our program by introducing students to great non-canonical works.  But I must admit, that many of my favorite works of literature are within the canon, and I think we need to be careful of completely disregarding these works.  By placing non-canonical works on a higher ground than canonical works, we’re essentially placing the non-canonical works on a pedestal then.  I think what matters is not that works are canonical or non-canonical, but if we like them, if we have an emotional connection to them.  I think each of us has our own scale on how we rate books, and that’s the scale that matters.

I like your connection between Gordon and New Historicism.  Contextualization includes examining those “ghosts” surrounding the work.  Asking the question, What was/is haunting the work? is like asking, What is the cultural context?  What are the underlying contexts?  One thing you always do for me Rob is discuss the works we read in a poetic way, and I really appreciate that.  I was mainly thinking about psychoanalysis while reading Gordon.  And you articulate the tension between proof and intuition/feeling.  I see this tension in your area of study, morality and fin de siecle literature.

I really enjoyed reading your insightful essay, Janelle!  Ahmed’s work seems an appropriate context for the ESL teacher – the idea that happiness is constructed.  I’m especially drawn to this paragraph of your essay.  You have such a captivating writing style and the honesty of this paragraph as well as the others demonstrates how humble you are in your profession – you don’t pretend to know how your students are feeling.  Though I do notice something in your experience of living abroad.  You may not share the same experience as your students, but it seems to me you’ve run in to some culture shock along the way, and you certainly have more experience than me living abroad.  I think your travels must only assist in trying to understand that “migrant” student.