JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 24, Number 2, 2004 Page: 463
261-512 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Robert D. Samuels
the Holocaust in film or in discussion groups. In fact, there are many
informative sites on the Web. For example, The Museum of Tolerance
has a web site that not only offers valuable information about the museum
itself but also presents a lot of detailed historical knowledge regarding the
Holocaust and other matters. However, what this Web site cannot do is
to engage the students in a dialogue over their own emotional responses
to this historical trauma.
Pedagogical Implications of Analyzing Popular Resistances
Throughout this essay, I have been arguing that since contemporary
students get so much of their knowledge about cultural and historical
traumas from popular culture sources, teachers need to address the way
students resist analyzing the implications and affects circulating in
postmodern popular culture. I have also posited that when students
encounter anxiety-provoking course material, they will often project
their negative feelings onto their teachers. In order to limit this problem
of projective identification, I have recommended an approach that begins
with the analysis of other people's reactions to historical traumas and
popular culture representations. However, at a certain stage in every
class, one still needs to engage students on the level of their own affective
responses, and this can represent the most difficult aspect of this type of
class.
To help deal with the anxiety and apathy that can be generated from
asking students to consider states of extreme helplessness, I think that the
teacher has to first establish a safe classroom environment and then ask
students to write in a private way about their own personal responses to
the class material. Yet, this type of expressivist writing will only help if
students are asked to consider their own cognitive and emotional re-
sponses as at least partially culturally and historically constructed. In
other words, it is important to help students to denaturalize their own
emotions and to historicize their affective lives while they get more in
touch with their subjective reactions. The goal here is not to colonize their
emotions by subjecting them to alienating concepts and theories; rather,
the idea is to help students open a dialogue between their affective
reactions and their cognitive responses.
By having students write about their own emotional states in a critical
way, teachers can help to avoid the pitfalls of universalization, idealiza-
tion, identification, and assimilation; however, as Worsham posits, this
process will only work if the students do not feel that the teacher is being
placed in "the traditional patriarchal role as the sign of power and the463
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 24, Number 2, 2004, periodical, 2004; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28644/m1/209/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .