“It helps us to understand that reading the word cannot be separated from reading the world” (Janks, 13). Even though Ifemelu knew English—it is the official language of British-colonized Nigeria, after all—she experienced a new kind of literacy when she moved to the United States to read her new world. It was fascinating how she was able to read people’s interactions and make critical deductions from it that were foreign to her a few years prior when she was in Nigeria. The literacy she experienced was slow, but through her blog, she was able to cause social change because she understood the power differential of groups in the US.
I am not really sure where I am going with this, but this course was definitely in my head while I was reading Americanuh. To me, it’s important to have a real connection to theory that is a part of your everyday life, as reading fiction books are to mine. As I was writing my 123 paper, I was thinking about how uncomfortable I am making judgments about the power struggles in my place of employment (it's kind of depressing, plus I have zero power to actually change anything). I much prefer to see those in my fictionalized worlds.
Gif from here from Adichie's first TED Talk.
This is a super helpful post, Melissa. You note how "it’s important to have a real connection to theory that is a part of your everyday life, as reading fiction books are to mine. As I was writing my 123 paper, I was thinking about how uncomfortable I am making judgments about the power struggles in my place of employment (it's kind of depressing, plus I have zero power to actually change anything). I much prefer to see those in my fictionalized worlds."
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good insight! There are many risks to doing this work--and the sense of being emotionally overwhelmed by it is one of the most potent risks. This, reminds me of the Wallerstein chapter on Freire, and why "codes" were helpful. Codes, like your fiction, provides vivid and fully engage-able experiences that are a step removed from our one personal lives. And Freire used them precisely for the same reason you stated above--to make connections to theory without getting swallowed up. :)