[Xmca-l] Re: Identity through "experiential texts"

[Christopher Schuck]

Hi David,

Sounds like a great class! The Black Swan is another excellent movie
touching upon these themes that wasn't mentioned.

In terms of reading, I would recommend one of the many excellent articles
by Mark Freeman on the relationship between memory, identity and narrative
self (he also has a chapter in the Kirschner/Martin text that Lplarry [real
name??] recommended), or a chapter from either his 2010 book Hindsight or
1993 book Rewriting the Self.

Another perspective is from philosophy of psychiatry, where there has been
a lot of interdisciplinary discussion about the ways that certain kinds of
psychopathology (or the way society frames them) interacts with identity;
for example, Jennifer Radden - Divided Minds and Successive Selves or the
collection Personal Identity and Fractured Selves (Mathews and Bok) which
also addresses neuroscience. Muriel Dimen edited an anthology of
psychoanalytic case studies (With Culture in Mind) that demonstrate how
culture and politics inevitably become implicated in identity, and how this
in turn challenged the analyst's assumptions about their own identity.
Given that you are critiquing traditional models, you might want to check
out Marya Schechtman who has made some interesting critiques of
philosophy's reliance on continuity in "personal identity" literature and
its wonky tendencies to engage in "what if" thought experiments while
ignoring more narrative elements; she has an article on the significance of
"empathic access" to understanding identity which might be good for
teachers-in-training (attached).

Yet another perspective would be the Buddhist idea of the "empty self"
(maybe a guided mindfulness exercise focusing on that topic?).

Finally, as an experiential exercise: this might be way out there, but have
you ever considered offering students the voluntary option of spending an
hour in a sensory deprivation chamber (assuming there is such a resource in
your area)? This could be a really interesting way of exploring the
relationship between perception of self and felt bodily sense. A friend of
mind used to go to a place near our town that had a tank you could rent by
the hour, and found that it really challenged his habitual frames of mind
in this regard. Unless it's too much of a liability issue, of course!

Best, Chris

On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 1:04 PM, David H Kirshner <dkirsh@lsu.edu> wrote:

> I'm preparing to teach a capstone graduate course for teachers-to-be that
> includes a focus on identity.
> The major assignment is a Personal Literacy Portfolio in which students
> compile, organize, and discuss artifacts of their past in exploration of
> their identity. The rationale is that this self-awareness of positioning
> facilitates engagement with students of diverse cultural locations.
>
> I'm asking for suggestions of course resources.
> Rather than a single course reader, I'm looking for "experiential
> texts"-that is creative products in any medium that can help perturb
> essentialist ideas of core identity in favor of a more complex,
> poststructural view of identity as multiple and fragmented. Media can
> include academic writing in psychology, sociology, philosophy; short
> stories; poetry; film; works of art, etc.
>
> If you'd like to email me off-line (dkirsh@lsu.edu<mailto:dkirsh@lsu.edu>),
> I'll send a compilation of all suggestions to XMCA.
>
> Below is a list of some experiential texts I'm already considering.
>
> David
>
> Walkerdine, V. (1990). Chapter 1: Sex, power and pedagogy. In V.
> Walkerdine (Ed.), Schoolgirl fictions(pp. 3-15). London: Verso. Reprinted
> from Screen Education, 38, 14-24, 1981.
>
> PBS Video: http://www.pbs.org/program/nine-months-that-made-you/
> 9 Months That Made You   -  How a person's individuality is developed,
> including their sexuality
>
> Documentary on the life of a child kept without language for 13 years.
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/14/genie-feral-child-los-angeles-researchers
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZolHCrC8E
>
> Movie: Enemy  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_(2013_film)
> The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as two men who are physically identical,
> but different in terms of personality.
>
> Gee, J. P. (2001). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education.
> In W. G. Secada (Ed.), Review of Research in Education, 25 (pp. 3-56).
> Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. [identity = kind
> of person one is recognized as being]
>
> Stremmel, A., Burns, J., Nganga, C., & Bertolini, K. (2015). Countering
> the essentialized discourse of teacher education. Journal of Early
> Childhood Teacher Education, 36(2), 156-174. [discussed in
> http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=20275]
>
>
>
>
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