The Notion of Song, Identities, Discourses, and Power: Bridging Songs with Literary Texts to Enhance Students’ Interpretative Skills Elroy Alister Esdaille Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 Elroy Alister Esdaille All Rights Reserved Abstract Sometimes students struggle to interpret literary texts because some of these texts do not lend themselves to the deduction of the interpretative processes with which they are familiar, but the same is not true when students pull interpretations from songs. Is it possible that students’ familiarity with songs might enable them to connect a song with a book and aid interpretation that way? This study attempted to explore the possibility of bridging songs to literary texts in my Community College English classroom, to ascertain if or how the use of song can support or extend students’ interpretive strategies across different types of texts. I investigated how songs might work as a bridge to other texts, like novels, and, if the students use songs as texts, to what extent do the students develop and hone their interpretative skills? Because of this, how might including songs as texts in English writing or English Literature curriculum contribute to the enhancement of students’ writing? The students’ responses disclosed that the songs appealed to their cognition and memories and helped them to interpret and write about the novels they read. Moreover, the students’ responses revealed that pairing or matching songs with novels strengthened interpretation of the book in a plethora of ways, such as meta-message deduction, applying contexts, applying comparisons, and examining thematic correlations. When a novel is bridged or paired with a song, interpretation can also be derived by examining different perspectives, characterizations, personal connections, and life experiences. Exploring emotional connections as well as signs and symbolism can also enable interpretation. Another way to deduce interpretation, according to the students, is to locate a reoccurring issue or thread in a song and transfer the analysis from the song to the novel. However, although a few students might not use songs to interpret literary texts, they might still be able to recognize that the possibility exists to grasp meaning that way. Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi DaCapo ........................................................................................................................................ viii Inside Me-I Am Song.......................................................................................................................1 Part I – A Harmony of the Notion of Song ......................................................................................2 Chapter 1: A Melody of the Notion of Song, Culture, and Unmooring ..........................................3 A Little Night Music ............................................................................................................3 Culture and Music, and the Notion of Song ........................................................................5 What Constitutes the Notion of Song?.................................................................................6 Identity Deduction, Songs, and Notions of Song .................................................................8 Chapter 2: An Interlude of Identities, Discourses, Power, and Life Journeys ...............................11 The Journey Now Starts .....................................................................................................11 Songs and Purpose to Research .........................................................................................12 The Relationship of Discourses, Identities, and Power .........................................15 Discourses ..........................................................................................................................16 A Song of Discourse ..............................................................................................16 Discourses and the Social Element ........................................................................17 Discourses as Identity Kits.....................................................................................18 Power .................................................................................................................................19 Power, Knowledge Dissemination, and Identity....................................................19 Music and Song as Counter Narratives ..................................................................20 The Inclusion of Music and Song in Curriculum...............................................................22 A Metaphysical, Ontological Journey................................................................................26 A Meta-intertextual Twit .......................................................................................26 Challenges to Employing Songs in the Classroom ................................................27 A Journey of Life and Culture ...........................................................................................27 Questions of Life....................................................................................................28 Memories and Reflection of Music and Song ....................................................................29 Chapter 3: Decrescendo to Crescendo—Chords of Methods, Procedure, and Data ......................30 An Ensemble of Data and Interpretation Frameworks ......................................................30 The Data, Pedagogy, and Framework ....................................................................30 Phase 1: Laying the groundwork ..................................................................37 Phase 2: Positing to explore bridging different texts ....................................37 Phase 3: Bridging a song with a written text and post-ex facto field notes ..................................................................................................38 Phase 4: Bridging song with text ..................................................................40 Phase 5: Questions for written responses and interviews .............................40 Untangle the Data Set ............................................................................................46 Data Interpretation .............................................................................................................47 i Part II – Octaves of Data Analysis .................................................................................................51 Chapter 4: Symphonic Analysis of Questionnaire I—Songs .........................................................52 Research Artifact 1: Questionnaire 1—Songs Assessment ...............................................52 Students’ Responses...........................................................................................................54 Songs and Understanding Texts.............................................................................54 Mood Enhancement Fosters Classroom Engagement ............................................55 Feelings, Emotions, and Identity ...........................................................................58 Conveying Life Lessons ........................................................................................61 Language, Music, and Song ...................................................................................62 Songs Related to Society and Making Sense of the World ...................................65 Songs and Power ....................................................................................................67 Students’ Responses—Theme: Issues, Values, and Beliefs ..............................................72 Song Links with Ethnicity, Religion, and Culture .................................................72 Songs Reflect Our Views .......................................................................................74 Songs and Identity..................................................................................................76 Songs and the Appreciation of Beauty...................................................................78 Music, Song, and the Unexplainable .....................................................................80 Songs Are Like Poems, Focusing on World Problems ..........................................82 Songs, Emotions, and Memories ...........................................................................84 Categories: Touches on the Research Design and Purpose ...............................................88 Songs and Meaning: Intertextuality .......................................................................88 Songs and Meaning: The Interpretive Value of Songs ..........................................89 Reading Ourselves and the World as Texts ...........................................................91 Songs, Meaning, Identity, and Worldview ............................................................92 Students’ Responses: Theme—Issues, Values, and Beliefs ..............................................94 Songs, Identity, and the Self ..................................................................................94