Teaching Literature of Resistance, Part I

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Why Literature of Resistance? Or, Who's Afraid of Pol Pot?


Next spring, I'll be teaching a course I'm calling "Literature of Resistance" I'll be collaborating in a literature criticism course where we'll examine fiction and non-fiction examples of resistance -- critiquing the social/cultural kairos in which the work was framed, the author's intentions (if available), the literary/rhetorical moves made, the audience's reception, and any short-term or long-term effects of the literature.

Currently, the authors' list includes Acosta, Frankl, Harriet Jacobs, Henry Thoreau, James Baldwin, Frederick Douglas, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jefferson, King, Atwood, Mandela, Chavez, Chief Joseph, and Malcolm X. Those are on the tentative syllabus, though I intend to introduce each of these in the first week and have students choose which authors they are most interested in, then prioritize our syllabus based on those conversations. Further, I'll ask students to put names into the mix that they are interested in discussing, including authors from hip-hop and non-Western canons. Finally, I intend to through some "unsafe" voices in the mix, such as Lenin, Pol Pot, et al to compare the rhetoric of resistance that has been criticized by the American conservative academy and let the students critique why these voices have been exorcised from the anthologies.

Critical Literacy

Though I prefer to teach first year writing, this literature course intends to demonstrate other ways texts can be used to critically expose social, political, and cultural issues of our time. Yes, I'm basing much of the framework of the course as a Freirian laboratory of emancipatory literacy and writing,  expecting students (and myself) to question the purpose and the message of these texts and take stance on issues. In other words, this is -- for curriculum and pedagogical purposes -- an exercise in critical literacy, with my assumption (based on experience), that our students have not been asked to exercise critical literacy skills, which both disenfranchises them from civic engagement, but also disenfranchises them from most literacy acts at all -- including just appreciating belles-lettres.

I argue that our students, our citizenry, have been kept from critical literacy by a neoliberal education system that is designed to create complacent behavior detached from real-world needs and experiences. Substituted for critical literacy, young people have been exposed to "well-behaved" literature which offends no one, replicates the dominant culture, and silences the majority's voices, especially those voices represented in community colleges such as where I work. learn.

“Until lions have historians, hunters will be the heroes.” -- African Proverb


The class and I will begin with the assumption that every author has a bias, that every work has a purpose, and that every audience has a reaction to a text. Published works (that is; for a profit, and most of these are published; Chief Joseph would be an exception; even Wollstonecraft made money from her pamphletering) are authored with a bias of reaching a specific audience that is willing to exchange goods, in the form of money, for entertainment, inspiration, or argument. Nevertheless, bias exists in every structured work, and the works under consideration will be examined for their perceptions of the dominant cultures of their times and what bias, if any, can be located in current social/political/cultural rhetorics.

Luke and Freebody (1999) describe four “families of practice” necessary for every reader to assume:

• Code breaker—understanding the text at the surface level (alphabetic, structural);
• Meaning maker—comprehending the text at the level intended by the author;
• Text user—analyzing the factors that influenced the author and the text, including an historical grounding of the context within which it was written;
• Text critic—understanding that the text is not neutral, and that existing biases inform calls to action.

It's this last practice which we will especially focus on, through critical reading strategies, multiple discussions in and out of the classroom, multiple writing (including multi-modal) forms, and some form of critical literacy project returned to our community. That project will be designed by the student-colleagues as the semester progresses and in consultation with community literacy experts such as activists, educators, librarians, and others. Ultimately, I intend -- as I increasingly am understanding how to do -- to return the college back to the community as an active of citizenship.

So -- Your Input?

I'll continue writing, meandering with thoughts on this class and its place in the community college, but I'd like to ask a favor -- I'd like you (you. Yes, you -- don't look away. You know who I'm talking to) to offer a few critical suggestions on how you would use this course. Notice I didn't say, "enjoy" this class -- I don't believe every college class must be enjoyed to be beneficial, just as I don't think every trip to the gym needs to be a joy. But what would you do -- as a student-colleague, as an observer, as a pedagogue-in-training to start, maintain, design, or assess such as course?



References

Luke, Allan and Paul Freebody. "Further notes on the Four Resources model." 1999. Web. <http://www.readingonline.org/research/lukefreebody.html>


Be strong, and courageous.
Dixi et salvavi animam meam
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