[Xmca-l] Re: Response to Spoilsport: Beyondoppositionaldualitiesindrama in education and dialogic pedagogy to promotelearningpossibilities

[lpscholar2@gmail.com]

Helen,

In the spirit of Dialogical Self Theory [DST] I am moving through the door you opened into the poetic imaginary. In particular I want to turn to page 7 where you describe the coming into being of your original poem and how you articulate your understanding of what is occurring in this original poem.  The theme I am returning to is the notion of *synthesis* [or *essences*] of a particular *phenomenon*.  I as a reader was encountering a sense of what I will call *existential* phenomenology.  The question of what is showing up or becoming revealed in the original poem. 

On page 7 you describe this process of creating the original poem. Your reflections *expanded* to INCLUDE and intertwine snippets of data from other teacher participants, ideas from literature and memories, and observations of your own observations.  Your expanding listening included a poetic *synthesizing* that generated a particular *essence of* a phenomenon. In this case the phenomenon of “Just Tell Us”.  
The synthesis occurred from gathering together a variety of perspectives and when you expressed these emerging voices within this poetic form other teachers and learners also experienced a shared recognition. 
You describe this poetic form as *carrying* a humanized, emotionalized, sense of the different *voice* that was uttering each perspective.  
I at this point want to suggest the metaphor *carry* may also include the sense of being *captured by* the humanized, emotionalized, sense of the different voices which may include other imagined *persons* [personifications]  voicing each perspective. I introduce this addition to introduce a wobble within understanding that we are being carried or captured not only from within multiple *I* positions. These imaginal voices may  include our multiple *I’s*but may also include voices that are speaking to us from other *sources*.

However, whether multiple I’s or multiple others arei becoming expressed through personified voices, the poetic form is expressing  these voices. 

You then move to the realm of what you *believe* [is this belief also a faith?]. You believe this poetic form is what helps create a *personal* empathic connection between the writer/reader AND THE PHENOMENON being described.. This phenomenon [whether multiple I’s or possibly other voices] when expressed poetically is distinctly *different* from regular research notes and distinctly different from prose.

Helen, you refer back to Emerson’s “An American Scholar” which explores existential phenomena as transcendental which would open another door into poetic form. What does the transcendental American tradition carry [or transcendental  tradition offer] as generative for Dialogical Self Theory. 

My point of *wobble* embraces your understanding of *synthesis*. I wonder however if notions such as a person’s personal *muse* can be considered existing as only multiple I’s or may also describe a transcendental version of the *other* who is not *self* but is another source of *voice* that carries [or captures] us if we listen and *hear* that voice.

Stanley Cavell was deeply moved by Emerson’s voice as were the American pragmatists that you mention in the article. 

Thank you for illuminating the validity of the poetic form of existential phenomenology.  I found your personal quest generative of hearing multiple voices speaking and generating syn/thesis. 
Larry 
Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Helen Grimmett
Sent: Friday, March 4, 2016 8:28 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Response to Spoilsport: Beyondoppositionaldualitiesindrama in education and dialogic pedagogy to promotelearningpossibilities

Yep Larry, I think you got it. Funnily enough, the Dialogical Self Theory conference was in The Hague, which is also home to the Escher museum. Wandering around the museum I was struck by how much of his work related to the ideas being discussed at the conference. In particular, this image (Still Life and Street) perfectly depicts for me this blurring of boundaries between inside and outside that you have picked up on.