Apr 3: Testimony, Trauma Narratives & Memorials
Dear All Good ENG 4815 Folks:
I've had to compress a couple of our discussions, but I think it can be done! Here are some links to
electronic work spaces for Tuesday's class:
While it won't serve as our only case study, we will use Mohamedou Slahi's Guantanamo Diary to help us begin to unpack some of today’s readings about trauma narratives, testimony, and the rhetorical uses or values of confession. Here are some related links, FYI:
We will also consider a hypertext testimony (of sorts):
And here are some discussion questions that might guide us:
Our case studies in this unit may raise complicating questions about the role of public vs. private testimonies, the role of perception vs. fact, the role of belief (or believability) vs. trust, among other binary constructions, as well as the relationship between verifiability and viability.
They may also invite us to think about various intersectionalities at which we might (or should) consider them to occur, or various intersectional identifications at which we might (or should) be willing to understand that their authors have occupied.
Finally, they ask us to consider our imperative--as students and theorists of text and textuality--to do more than simply read, and to begin questioning how these texts get situated within certain logics. In fact, they may ask us to consider whether there are new or different ways we should respond.
More soon,
-Prof. Graban
I've had to compress a couple of our discussions, but I think it can be done! Here are some links to
electronic work spaces for Tuesday's class:
- discussion table for terms, metaphors, and dilemmas in Anzaldua, Doxtader, and Gilmore
- inventing a transnational rhetorical (TNR) approach to reading the "other" (and doing other things with texts).
While it won't serve as our only case study, we will use Mohamedou Slahi's Guantanamo Diary to help us begin to unpack some of today’s readings about trauma narratives, testimony, and the rhetorical uses or values of confession. Here are some related links, FYI:
- Little, Brown & Co. information page on the book
- Guantanamo Diary on Amazon
- May 2016 article in the Guardian
- October 2016 article on NPR
We will also consider a hypertext testimony (of sorts):
- Public Secrets (by Sharon Daniel and Erik Loyer, in Vectors Journal)
And here are some discussion questions that might guide us:
- Gilmore, Doxtader, and Anzaldua deal with the autobiographical genre of testimonies or confessions, particularly as human rights texts, although Gilmore does more of an analysis of the genre, while Doxtader argues philosophically for its value. In either of their essays, how does testimony “rehumanize the trauma” (Gilmore), and why is this an important factor?
- What is the role of pain, struggle, violence, and/or trauma in each of their definitions of “testimony” or “confession”?
- How much of the experience of testimony or confession do you think they say is “beyond language”?
- How do you think each of them tries to equip us to “think outside our own rhetorical system” (Mao)?
- What bothers you or turns you off about the arguments they try to make? What draws you in or makes you identify?
Our case studies in this unit may raise complicating questions about the role of public vs. private testimonies, the role of perception vs. fact, the role of belief (or believability) vs. trust, among other binary constructions, as well as the relationship between verifiability and viability.
They may also invite us to think about various intersectionalities at which we might (or should) consider them to occur, or various intersectional identifications at which we might (or should) be willing to understand that their authors have occupied.
Finally, they ask us to consider our imperative--as students and theorists of text and textuality--to do more than simply read, and to begin questioning how these texts get situated within certain logics. In fact, they may ask us to consider whether there are new or different ways we should respond.
More soon,
-Prof. Graban