THE APPLE and the Talking SNAKE: FEMINIST DREAM READINGS and the SUBJUNCTIVE CURRICULUM
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THE APPLE AND THE TALKiNG SNAKE: FEMINIST DREAM READINGS AND THE SUBJUNCTIVE CURRICULUM by PEARL E. GREGOR B.Ed., The University of Alberta, 1973 M.Ed., The University of Alberta, 1984 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Curriculum Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2008 © Pearl E. Gregor ABSTRACT In this dissertation I develop a theoretical framework for the practice of dream reading as a form of literary engagement worthy of attention from educators. Dream reading is a form of research in which the researcher takes responsibility for self- reflection and potential transformation of self through the construction of knowledge based on “reading” literary fictive images as ifthey arose from night dreams. This study develops dream reading theory through an exploration of Carol Shields’ novel, Unless, as fit were a dream. It examines women’s silence and the disposition of fear of knowing from multiple perspectives. The study uses my personal dream journals together with a variety of theoretical works in feminist, consciousness and dream theories to inform interpretations of Norah, Reta, Lois, and Danielle. For as Donald (2001) says, “when stories and ideas are juxtaposed, so that their meanings collide, they can shift our focus to new semantic spaces [to] clarify the experienced world” (p. 294). This work is a limit case that investigates women’s silence and fear of knowing as they emerge from my personal experience of resistance to the chaos and uncertainty of disintegrating and rebuilding through midlife into crone. The study shows how dream reading a literary text might gather together and re arrange lived experience and encourage the creation and re-creation of life stories from different perspectives. Dream reading contributes to the study of the details of the phenomenology of inside/outside cognitive worlds. Exploring literary fiction and personal dreams suggests that literary fiction read as if it were a dream can contribute to the identification of shifting self-knowledge and the creation of new myths subversive to the patriarchal Symbolic Order. Narrating and re-creating reader-response experience 11 provides insight into self and the struggle for the transformation of the principles of linear rational thought. Finally, it is suggested that by accepting that lived reality matters and by beginning to imagine exceeding the demands of patriarchal consciousness for conformity, acquiescence and certainty, one can explore, perceive and imagine teaching and learning in different ways, and thereby create opportunities for critical reflection and insight in the teacher education curriculum. 111 .TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iv Acknowledgements Vi Dedication vii Chapter 1: Dreams Along the Way 1 Chapter 2: Ceaseless Seeking and Interpretation: Knowing and Unknowing 31 Chapter 3: Blackened by Melancholic Frustration:’ A Theory of Norah 54 Chapter 4: Unlearning the World: A Theory of Reta 87 Chapter 5: The Square of Cardboard She Occupies: A Theory of Lois 118 Chapter 6: Creating the Space of Doubt: A Theory of Danielle 143 Chapter 7: In Celebration of My Womb 167 Chapter 8: Worlds Without End— 192 Bibliography 213 Appendix I 219 Appendix II 224 Appendix III 229 Appendix IV 230 Appendix V 231 Appendix VI 232 Appendix VII 233 1 Hiliman, 1975b, p. 90 iv Appendix VIII .234 AppendixlX 235 AppendixX 236 Appendix XI 240 Appendix XII 241 Appendix XIII 242 Appendix XIV 245 Appendix XV 248 Appendix XVI 249 Appendix XVII 252 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has a gestation of 20 years. It is the result of the influence and wisdom of many people some who were dream figures and some who touched my life in ways deeper than the reading, studying and writing of this work. I acknowledge them all. Dennis Sumara was my advisor and guide through four years of course work, comprehensive examination, research proposal, and dissertation writing. Before I was accepted as a provisional doctoral candidate, he allowed me to join his seminar midway through. He made it possible to transfer my program from the University of Alberta to the University of British Columbia in a seamless and problem-free manner. Dennis encouraged me from the beginning and supported my deep inner need to incorporate dreams and dream work into my scholarship. William Pinar, Anne Phelan and Carl Leggo provided feedback and comments from a deep place of generosity throughout the dissertation process. Verna Schmidt, my friend of many years listened, loved, laughed and cried with me through the contentious, deeply moving and healing years of the early 1990’s and continues to journey with me through to the completion of this dissertation and beyond. Bernice Luce, my Crone model, shared both her passion for academic excellence and her recent academic experiences. She generously read and re-read this work and provided editing suggestions. vi DEDICATION To the memory of my husband, William Arthur Gregor, whose love and support lifted me up through many difficult years and without whom I may never have continued the search. To the memory of my parents, Anthony Joseph Kramps and Caroline Hélène Miller, who taught me endurance, love, faith, and that miracles do happen. To my adult children Jason Gregor, Cohn and Elise Gregor, Eric Stang and Rachel Gregor Stang who give me the joy of their constant love and support and who know that night dreams offer fullness of life. To my grandchildren Liam, Noah and Ava Gregor and Ethan, Ian and Owen Stang who just really want to know what grade Grandmother is in now. For the first time in history, enormous numbers of women are traveling through the gate of menopause and looking forward to a life span of some 30 more years. And we women have a certain hard-won wisdom, gleaned through consciously processing the experiences of our long and fruitful lives. What are we going to do with this wisdom? Play golf? Get our hair done? We begin to glimpse the opportunity, and the responsibility. Ann Kreilkamp, Founder of Crone Chronicles vii 1. The Subjunctive Curriculum and Subjective Knowledge Hear the wind Feel the moisture Shriveled bleeding soul. Smell life return to the rivers and pastures turn green. Touch the wild marigold that blooms brilliant yellow Waters of the storm, flooding, filling, destroying, building. I need a wild garden Not clipped and even hedges with sharp angles and symmetry manufactured by shears A wild garden where nature shows her wild destructive face and grins her laughing wrinkled smile in chaotic peace. Personal Journal 1993 ** * Thus towards the end of the eighteenth century a change came about which, if I were rewriting history, I should describe more fully and think of greater importance than the Crusades or the Wars of the Roses. The middle-class woman began to write. Virginia Woolf *** I begin with fear. Stories. Promises. This dissertation is crone-written. Through multiple lenses of personal experience, I write about feminist and consciousness theory. I look at dreams and dream work as a layperson, through Jungian analytical and archetypal psychology. As a reader, I look at how I encounter and interpret text and how these responses and imaginary identifications influence consciousness and ordinary life interactions with others. In this study, I explore the potential of literary engagement for the transformation of fear into personal and 1 professional action. I expand the definition of literary engagement to include a theory of dream reading. I write about how literary expression provokes deeper understanding of personal and professional identity. Finally I articulate the potential relevance of dream interpretation processes to the field of curriculum studies and pre-service teacher education. This study centers on the narration of a feminist understanding of women’s silence and fear of knowing. I argue that feminist work is far from complete; the surface calm is not indicative of peaceful fulfillment but, rather, deep despair. Women’s knowing is constrained, muted and silenced by the identifications of her birthright within patriarchal structures and discourses. I believe we must create a map out of the mostly hidden but well learned territory of silence. Grumet (1988) joins Virginia Woolf and Kafka to ask teachers to “make a place for themselves where they can find the silence that will permit them to draw their experience and understanding into expression” (p. 88). This dissertation is one such place and one such silence. I believe that this is significant work for education. First, Donald (2001) suggests there is an ongoing need in the social sciences to move beyond the beginnings of a phenomenology of consciousness to a new field of study, a fresh science of consciousness that details the phenomenology of inner cognitive worlds (p. 329). Second, Lodge states succinctly that “The novel is arguably man’s most successful effort to describe the experience of individual human beings moving through space and time” (Lodge, 2002, p. 10). The novelist provides vivid, detailed descriptions of imaginary subjective experiences. In “real” life, we do not have access to the detailed thoughts and emotions of those around us. “(L)iterature is a record of human consciousness, the richest and most comprehensive we have” (Lodge, 2002, p. 10). We can deepen our understanding of human experience 2 through a dream reading of consciousness in the novel. Third, classroom educators and researchers are interested in the relationships between literary experiences and consciousness (Lodge, 2002; Kerby, 1991; Donald, 2001; Luce-Kapler, 2004; and Sumara, Luce-Kapler & Iftody, 2008). Finally, radical feminists (Christ & Plaskow, 1979; Daly, 1973, 1978) are concerned with eradicating the root causes of the patriarchal system in Western society. I cannot state too strongly that I consider the interpretive act of dream reading a critical feminist project of re-mediating, re-situating, re-naming and re membering women’s experiences, history and identity.