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RE: teach the conflicts
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From: Kunze, Peter <pkunze_at_fsu.edu>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 00:58:22 +0000
Hi Marc,
Personally I agree with everything you are saying, and if I have given the idea that I did not earlier, that is the limitation of a brief response on a listserv rather than an actual discussion in person.
Your comments prompt one thing to come to mind, in particular, from a pedagogical perspective: time. When I have taught Satrapi and Nafisi in the past, it has been in the context of a world literature course. This class was further complicated by the fact that is was a summer session, condensing 15 weeks of work into 6 weeks. In my experience, an "Introduction to World Literature" is a feigned attempt at multiculturalism. We can offer 20 different takes on American literature, from the intensive author study to the survey of a movement, but world literature gets lumped into one course with an unclear approach (survey, special topics, etc.). "Wide exposure" is something I think anyone who has planned a course has struggled with. In a world literature course, I had to ask myself, Do I do an intensive study of one country or region? Do I do a representative work from a select variety of regions? Do I plan according to units? Or do I accept defeat and just teach the books "people" will expect a college student to have read?
Ultimately, I organized my course around issues rather than cultures, though a variety of the latter was certainly represented. When students read a book like Nafisi's, they tend to be moved by the affective aspects and the way it sometimes reinforces certain attitudes many of them already have. Satrapi helps to challenge that while offering another, not-necessarily-superior perspective. I don't want to fall into the relativism, but I don't want to favor one outright either; instead, we discuss critiques of each and students come to their own conclusions based on the cases made. Granted, Nafisi's and Satrapi's are two of millions of perspectives, but time allows only so many texts in the classroom. Satrapi and Nafisi aren't "the Iranian section" so much as a unit on colonialism, neocolonialism, and the modern nation-state through the lens of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It's not perfect, but teaching, like learning, are processes of becoming. I don't mean for students to condemn one or the other, but to acknowledge diverging perspectives, their sources, their rhetorical approaches, and their shortcomings. It's not a binary; it's a conversation. The criticism and judgement you mention doesn't necessarily have to come from me, but I certainly help sharpen and hone it as they come to those conclusions.
It's a great ideal to aim for wide exposure, but what I personally feel is more important is providing students the tools to go out and find those materials themselves rather than burdening myself with a curatorial responsibility in addition to my teaching responsibility. Papers or presentations can do this, in part, by encouraging further investigation, but really I want them to feel compelled to do extracurricular work without the concern over instructor evaluation or need for the dreaded "extra credit." That, quite admittedly, is often a quixotic task, but it happens. Taking American literature as but one example, a semester-long course would barely scratch the surface of the topic, let alone a major in American literature. But this is the structure of much of our education system. What teachers can offer are tools to help students find valuable materials to expand their knowledge and engage with those materials in productive, enriching ways. Often these skills are developed throughout an education rather than just in one course, obviously, but I think teaching two or three writers in conversation can be useful toward having students thinking about discourse and ideology. These discourses and ideologies manifest themselves not only in the texts, but also in how the students themselves respond. When a student can start to question her or his own assumptions, biases, and ideologies, I believe as teachers we've done a greater service than ensuring the "wide exposure" through reading materials. So when I chose a text for my class, I am more likely to say, "What issue does this text raise?" or "What skill can I sharpen with this text?" than "After reading this, students will know this topic." or "Students should be familiar with this author/text." This is disciplinary preference; I'm also an English teacher, not a history or religion or sociology teacher. This objective seems to be the thrust of contemporary literary criticism -- and cultural criticism at large -- where a Hirschian notion of cultural literacy is supplanted by discourse analysis and ideologiekritik. But if students can learn the latter, they can use those skills to explore the former on their own. Self-directed learning after college -- that is, seeing college as the continuation rather than culmination of one's education -- would be my end goal.
The short version: teach the conflicts doesn't have to be black versus white. It can be, "Here's dark gray and light gray for now, but there's also black and white, too."
Best wishes, Pete
________________________________ From: Marc Aronson [aronson.marc_at_gmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 5:38 PM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Subject: [ccbc-net] teach the conflicts
I'm having a two-fold hesitation about the responses to KT's post on Persepolis. Of course I agree that we should "teach the conflicts" and, indeed, I frequently encourage teachers of all grades to read Graff and Birkensetein, They Say, I Say precisely in order to encourage all reading and writing to be a debate, a conversation, an exchange of contentions grounded in evidence and based on deep understanding of the very views the student opposes.
And, further, I am sure that in the case of Islam generally, and Iran since the revolution in particular, there is a grave danger that prejudice, bias, and very limited knowledge will shape how a student reads any source. Students need wide exposure to the many, many voices of the many, many versions of Islam, and the lives and beliefs of Muslims the world over.
However I am concerned that we are treating all objections to Persepolis and Lolita as being of equal weight. For, while it is certainly true that the Shah in particular, and many "modernizing" regimes in general, was contemptuous and indeed brutal towards those who expressed deep faith and manifested that in their dress, beliefs, and practices, it is also true that the Revolution sought to impose a singular vision of how Iranians, and in particular women, should behave -- and did so with violent means. So while we need to be alert to all points of view, that does not mean all such views are above criticism and judgment.
My second hesitation is that if we agree -- as I do -- that we must "teach the conflict" we should also seek out views within the US with which we ardently disagree and give them air time and consideration. Receptivity to conflicting views cannot only apply overseas.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Fri 08 Aug 2014 08:00:02 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 00:58:22 +0000
Hi Marc,
Personally I agree with everything you are saying, and if I have given the idea that I did not earlier, that is the limitation of a brief response on a listserv rather than an actual discussion in person.
Your comments prompt one thing to come to mind, in particular, from a pedagogical perspective: time. When I have taught Satrapi and Nafisi in the past, it has been in the context of a world literature course. This class was further complicated by the fact that is was a summer session, condensing 15 weeks of work into 6 weeks. In my experience, an "Introduction to World Literature" is a feigned attempt at multiculturalism. We can offer 20 different takes on American literature, from the intensive author study to the survey of a movement, but world literature gets lumped into one course with an unclear approach (survey, special topics, etc.). "Wide exposure" is something I think anyone who has planned a course has struggled with. In a world literature course, I had to ask myself, Do I do an intensive study of one country or region? Do I do a representative work from a select variety of regions? Do I plan according to units? Or do I accept defeat and just teach the books "people" will expect a college student to have read?
Ultimately, I organized my course around issues rather than cultures, though a variety of the latter was certainly represented. When students read a book like Nafisi's, they tend to be moved by the affective aspects and the way it sometimes reinforces certain attitudes many of them already have. Satrapi helps to challenge that while offering another, not-necessarily-superior perspective. I don't want to fall into the relativism, but I don't want to favor one outright either; instead, we discuss critiques of each and students come to their own conclusions based on the cases made. Granted, Nafisi's and Satrapi's are two of millions of perspectives, but time allows only so many texts in the classroom. Satrapi and Nafisi aren't "the Iranian section" so much as a unit on colonialism, neocolonialism, and the modern nation-state through the lens of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It's not perfect, but teaching, like learning, are processes of becoming. I don't mean for students to condemn one or the other, but to acknowledge diverging perspectives, their sources, their rhetorical approaches, and their shortcomings. It's not a binary; it's a conversation. The criticism and judgement you mention doesn't necessarily have to come from me, but I certainly help sharpen and hone it as they come to those conclusions.
It's a great ideal to aim for wide exposure, but what I personally feel is more important is providing students the tools to go out and find those materials themselves rather than burdening myself with a curatorial responsibility in addition to my teaching responsibility. Papers or presentations can do this, in part, by encouraging further investigation, but really I want them to feel compelled to do extracurricular work without the concern over instructor evaluation or need for the dreaded "extra credit." That, quite admittedly, is often a quixotic task, but it happens. Taking American literature as but one example, a semester-long course would barely scratch the surface of the topic, let alone a major in American literature. But this is the structure of much of our education system. What teachers can offer are tools to help students find valuable materials to expand their knowledge and engage with those materials in productive, enriching ways. Often these skills are developed throughout an education rather than just in one course, obviously, but I think teaching two or three writers in conversation can be useful toward having students thinking about discourse and ideology. These discourses and ideologies manifest themselves not only in the texts, but also in how the students themselves respond. When a student can start to question her or his own assumptions, biases, and ideologies, I believe as teachers we've done a greater service than ensuring the "wide exposure" through reading materials. So when I chose a text for my class, I am more likely to say, "What issue does this text raise?" or "What skill can I sharpen with this text?" than "After reading this, students will know this topic." or "Students should be familiar with this author/text." This is disciplinary preference; I'm also an English teacher, not a history or religion or sociology teacher. This objective seems to be the thrust of contemporary literary criticism -- and cultural criticism at large -- where a Hirschian notion of cultural literacy is supplanted by discourse analysis and ideologiekritik. But if students can learn the latter, they can use those skills to explore the former on their own. Self-directed learning after college -- that is, seeing college as the continuation rather than culmination of one's education -- would be my end goal.
The short version: teach the conflicts doesn't have to be black versus white. It can be, "Here's dark gray and light gray for now, but there's also black and white, too."
Best wishes, Pete
________________________________ From: Marc Aronson [aronson.marc_at_gmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 5:38 PM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Subject: [ccbc-net] teach the conflicts
I'm having a two-fold hesitation about the responses to KT's post on Persepolis. Of course I agree that we should "teach the conflicts" and, indeed, I frequently encourage teachers of all grades to read Graff and Birkensetein, They Say, I Say precisely in order to encourage all reading and writing to be a debate, a conversation, an exchange of contentions grounded in evidence and based on deep understanding of the very views the student opposes.
And, further, I am sure that in the case of Islam generally, and Iran since the revolution in particular, there is a grave danger that prejudice, bias, and very limited knowledge will shape how a student reads any source. Students need wide exposure to the many, many voices of the many, many versions of Islam, and the lives and beliefs of Muslims the world over.
However I am concerned that we are treating all objections to Persepolis and Lolita as being of equal weight. For, while it is certainly true that the Shah in particular, and many "modernizing" regimes in general, was contemptuous and indeed brutal towards those who expressed deep faith and manifested that in their dress, beliefs, and practices, it is also true that the Revolution sought to impose a singular vision of how Iranians, and in particular women, should behave -- and did so with violent means. So while we need to be alert to all points of view, that does not mean all such views are above criticism and judgment.
My second hesitation is that if we agree -- as I do -- that we must "teach the conflict" we should also seek out views within the US with which we ardently disagree and give them air time and consideration. Receptivity to conflicting views cannot only apply overseas.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Fri 08 Aug 2014 08:00:02 PM CDT
