LEARNING RESPONSIVITY/RESPONSIBILITY: READING the LITERATURE of Historlcal WITNESS

LEARNING RESPONSIVITY/RESPONSIBILITY: READING THE LITERATURE OF HISTORlCAL WITNESS Claudia Eppert A thesis submitted in confomity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Graduate Programme in the Philosophy of Education Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto c Copyright by Claudia Eppert 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale u*m of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K 1 A ON4 Canada Canada Your hk Voire raterence Our ble Noire reWrenee The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence ailowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sel1 reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de rnicrofiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels rnay be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans sori permission. autorisation. Learn N2g Responsivity/Responsibility: Reading the Literature of Historicai Witness Doctorate of Philosophy, 1999 Claudia Eppert Graduate Programme in the Philosophy of Education Department of Theory and Policy Studies Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto DISSERTATION ABSTRACT This dissertation examines what might constitute a responsive/responsible practice of reading and teaching contemporary North Arnerican literature that bears witness to historical events of trauma, violence, and persecution. This question is specifically posed through a critical study of three witness narratives: Joy Kogawa's Obasan, Leslie Silko's Ceremony, and Paule Marshall's Prnisesortg for the Widow. The dissertation iniroduces the assertion that these narratives are constituted within the social fonn and framework of an ethicd address to readers to leam from the protagonists' remembrances and Bildung. Drawing predominantly upon contemporary psychoanalytic work and the writings of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, it maintains that this ethical address requires readers to break with conventional epistemological and ontological frameworks for comprehending the testimonial suffering of others. It subsequently examines the implications of such a radical learning ethic for pedagogical reading theory and practice. This examination is further developed through a critique of educational/ethical presumptions underlying various literary and pedagogical readings of the above three witness narratives. The dissertation concludes with the consideration of how teachers might then productively introduce these narratives, as well as other witness literature, into high school, college, or university English or Social StudiesMistory classes. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My gratitude extends far beyond the help given to me in the thinking, writing, editing of this dissertation. The people I seek to thank, even more crucially, have offered me rnyriüd examples about how fully and generously life can be lived. An immediate and extensive thanks to Deanne Bogdan, Peter Tri fonas, Robert Morgan, and John Willinsky fm the attention they've given to this thesis, and for dl their considerable kindness and support. 1 want to thank Deanne particularly for her kind, positive responses in my early years at OISENT. Thanks to Marg Brennan who came to the rescue through my many administrative concerns, and to Avi Jhyman, Tony Gailina, Alfredo Chow, and Tom Tunittin in the Computer Room who patiently helpecl me through dl my computer despüirs. Thanks also for tlie research help and quietude of Valda Svede. I am indebted to the dynamism and rigorous thought of the Testimony and Historical Memory group: Laura Beres, Andenye Chablitt-Clark, Nancy Chater, Mark Clamen, Lynne Davis, Mario diPaolantonio, Susan Fletcher, Chris Hiller. Sharon Rosenberg, Julie Salverson, and Florence Sicoli. A special appreciation for Sharon's continual warmth and thoughtfulness, not to mention her remarkable acuity. 1 am ever beholden to Roger 1. Simon, my supervisor, for showing me the possibilities of what education as an institutionai site can offer in terms of collegiality and study, for unfailingly giving of his tirne and care, for the breadth of his commitments, and most deeply, for the times he directly and indirectly communicated his enthusiasm for living and challenge. An immeasurable gratitude for the wisdom, solidity, and nourishrnent of the dearest of long- time friends: Daphne McCormack, Valerie Noftle, Alyson King, Atsuko Kubo, Mary Lindsay, Pam MacIntosh, Charlene Morton, Sheila Sofian, Daniel Vokey, Richard Whillans, and Sylvia Winninger. Without their ongoing support. there would most certainly be no thesis. Finally, 1 wish to thank my farnily for their many struggles, strengths, and efforts. 1 dedicate this work to thern. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: ETHICAL ADDRESS Introduction The Claims of Address Learning Ethics Li terary Know ledge Bild~irzgsro~naiz Schematic Structure of this Thesis CHAPTER TWO: LEARNING IN & FROM JOY KOGAWA'S OBASAN Introduction 27 Levinas' "Said" & "Saying" 28 Ohascm 's Pedagogical Structure 3 1 The Difficult Learning of Naomi Nakane 33 Leaming Eros and Attention 45 Tasks of Learning 54 Learning Questions 56 CHAPTER THREE: CEREMONIAL LEARNING & THE IDENTIFICATION WITH SUFFERING Introduction 60 Ceremonies of Remembrance-Learning Leslie Si1ko's Ceremon?? The Ceremonial Structure of Cerenrony 73 Reading as Ceremonial Leaming Nussbaum and the Ethics of Identification Reading as Ceremonial Leaming, Continued Reading as W itness-Learning CHAPTER FOUR: (UN)LEARNING HOME Introduction 93 Reniembrance-Learning in Paule Marshall's PraiFesong for the Widow 94 Home as RetuMot Retuming (Un) Learning Home in Marshall's Praisesong Marshall's Narrative as "Said" Interrupting Closure in Praisesorig Reader Responsibil i ty CHAPTER FIVE: CRISES OF LEARNING Introduction Crises of Witnessing Ethics ofhn Crisis Literary Crisis "Traurnatism of Astonishment" Witnessing (for) Alterity Auqim-isis as Wi tness-Learning Working Through Reading Personally Identification Re-Visi ted: A Reader's Anagnorisis Leaming Outside the Narrative CHAPTER SIX: TEACHING GUIDES: RE-LEARNING QUESTIONS Introduction 155 Teaching Cermorzy and Obnsaiz 158 Coarpciriiom to Lirerature: A Teacher's Guide for Obasan 162 Caliing (Orientation) into Question 166 An Aplproximal Approach 172 Interrupting the Inquisitorial: AProximal 'Why' Questions 178 WORKS CITED 188 CHAPTER ONE ETHICAL ADDRESS To read a text ... means bearing some burden of responsibility, believing oneself addressed, and thus answerabie -- to the text itself, or to one's reading of it. Adam Zachary Newton 1995, 45. INTRODUCTION In the last several decades in North America, there has been a marked rise in the availability and study of literature -- in the form of poetry, fiction, diary, memoir -- variously centred upon the negotiation of an historical past that has been beset with communal, collective, national acts of symbolic and physical violation, oppression, persecution. This literature cmbe considered indicative of a more general contemporary Western culturai and social preoccupation with the remembrance of traumatic historical events at the end of the twentieth century. Indeed, this preoccupation has become such that it is itself almost cliché to stress rnemory as a cultural obsession for Western societies (Huyssen 1994, 3). Pierre Nora, a leading French historian in the study of collective memory, attributes much of this phenornenon to the rise of democratization and to an increasing global technological and media prowess. According to Nora, this century has seen the passing of societies that assured the conservation and transmission of collective values, and the end of ideologies that posited an unencumbered passage from past to future. Additionally, with the assistance of mass-media, contemporary historical perception has become increasingly fragmented. The consequence of these societal changes is the widespread sense that remembrance has becorne lost. The cal1 for memory accrues thus from the apprehension of its collapse. As Nora States, "we speak so much of memory because there is so little of it left" (1 989, 7). On such tems. the evocation of memory appears melancholic -- a lament not for the past per se so much as for the traditions of remembrance through which the past was held in continuity with the present. From within this perspective, however, the retum to memory concurrently testifies to its struggle to corne out from beneath the service and shadows of history to act against the grain of an objecti fying and oppressive historical grammar. In the realization that the project of modemity had gone hombly wrong through the events of facism and the Holocaust, coupled with the violences of imperialism. remembrance has been hailed as a reparative act of vigilance against the methods of history and in honor of those who suffered its consequences. It has been called upon as an investment to be re-established and affirmed

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