A POETICS OF RECONCILIATION: THE AESTHETIC MEDIATION OF CONFLICT BY CYNTHIA E. COHEN B.A., Wesleyan University, 1976 Masters in City Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Reading and Writing Instruction December, 1997 2 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c 1997 Cynthia E. Cohen 3 to my parents to Ann and to Amelia and to the children who choose to be seeds of peace. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The practice of community oral history that gave rise to the questions that animate this study evolved through years of collaboration with artists, scholars and culture-bearers from many diverse communities. In particular, I would like to thank Feryal Abbasi Ghnaim, Tamar Yehoshua, Inea Bushnaq, Klara Barker, Wen-ti Tsen and all those whose stories and efforts made possible A Passion for Life: Stories and Folk Arts of Palestinian and Jewish Women. I also appreciate the insights of Bill Thompson and colleagues at The Oral History Center; Jane Sapp and friends at the Center for Cultural and Community Development; Ewa Pytowska of the Intercultural Training and Resource Center; Pat Dugan, Nancy Love and the women of the Trainers' Support Group; Judy Rigmont, Sarah Haskell and the New Hampshire PrisonArts Project; and Randy Thomas, Christy Hammer and the women of the New Hampshire Women's Oral History Project. This dissertation has benefitted directly from the courage and creativity of the young people of the Haitian bi-lingual program of the Graham and Parks Alternative School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and of the African-American teenagers affiliated with the Moore Community house in Biloxi, Mississippi. Their work embodied, and now illustrates, aspects of the theory I articulate here. During the summers of 1996 and 1997, I was privileged to work as a coexistence facilitator at the Seeds of Peace International Camp. I discussed the aesthetic mediation of conflict with colleagues there, and would like to acknowledge especially helpful conversations with Karen Sirker, Linda Carole Pierce, Farhat Agbaria and Liat Gross. My understanding of the importance of the arts in the work of reconciliation has been enriched especially by the intelligence and openness of the Arab and Israeli "seeds" whose willingness to take risks matches their passion for peace. I extend my thanks to John Wallach and Bobbie Gottschalk for their commitment to Seeds of Peace and for enabling my participation. I am indebted to many people and programs at the University of New Hampshire. The Doctoral Program in Reading and Writing Instruction, the Education Department and the 5 Graduate School provided fellowship support. Susan Franzosa and Jane Hansen encouraged the writing and publication of earlier work, upon which this study builds. Mekeel McBride inspired me to render oral history narratives into poetic form and willingly critiqued many drafts. Elizabeth Lane and Micki Canfield have given invaluable logistical and moral support. My friends, including among others, Marla Brettschneider, Bette Chamberlain, Judy Ferrara, Lyn Haas, Suzanne Huard, Jerry Kelley, Terry Moher, Cari Moorhead, and Peg Murray, along with past and present students in the Reading and Writing Program and in the Dissertation Seminar, have been excellent partners for both talking and walking. The members of my dissertation committee--Ann Diller, Barbara Houston, David Richman, Paula Salvio, and Pat Sullivan--have supported this effort with enthusiasm, intelligence, challenge and support. I have been honored to work with them. For the intensity of her engagement as coach, mentor, critic and friend, I am especially grateful to Barbara Houston, who directed this dissertation and chaired the committee. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Brandeis University International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life for their flexibility and their support during the final months of writing. More than a decade ago, when the last of my three siblings received her Ph.D., my mother commented: "Well, three down, one to go." I am grateful to my parents for their consistent commitment to education, and for filling my childhood home with both Japanese art and Jewish ritual. Finally, I appreciate Amelia, Pamela, James, David, Liam and Shane, for generously sharing their liveliness, and Ann Morgan, for her steadfast patience. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.............................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. xiii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 Background .................................................................................... 2 Implications of the Study ............................................................... 3 Overview ........................................................................................ 5 Reconciliation ..................................................................... 5 The Aesthetic Domain ........................................................ 6 Distinctive Contributions of the Aesthetic Domain to Reconciliation....................................................... 8 A Poetics ........................................................................................ 9 Aristotle's Poetics ................................................................ 10 Bachelard's Poetics ............................................................. 11 Anthropological Poetics ...................................................... 12 Significant Contributions ................................................................ 15 II. RECONCILIATION: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS ....................... 21 Reconciliation: Overview of Section 1 ............................................ 21 The Problem Reconciliation Seeks to Address ............................... 22 Defining Reconciliation ................................................................... 25 Reconciliation versus Tolerance: Engagement as a Prequisite for Trust .......................................................................... 27 Re-establishing Trust through Apology and Forgivene ........ 29 Re-establishing Trust through Rituals Other than Apology and Forgiveness........................................................ 32 The Problems of Inequity and Injustice............................... 35 Overcoming Alienation and Transformation ........................41 7 A Conception of Reconciliation for this Study ................... 44 III. THE EDUCATIONAL AND ETHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONCEPT OF RECONCILIATION..................................... 46 The Criteria Implicit in Reconciliation ............................................ 46 Embodying Norms of Mutual Respect and Fairness Intended to Characterize Adversaries' Future Relationship .... 47 Enhancing Disputants' Capacity to Trust and Be Trustworthy …............................................. 49 Expanding Disputants' Understanding of Their Own and Each Other's Suffering................................................................... 50 Engaging Adversaries in Acknowledging, and When Possible and Appropriate Redressing, Past Injustices............................... 52 Recognizing Participants' Integrity as Moral Agents and When Necessary Restoring the Moral Capacities Required for the Work of Reconciliation................. 54 The Relationships between Reconciliation and Conceptions of Education ............................................ 56 Assessing Moral Philosophy as the Framework for Understanding Reconciliation....................................................................... 60 Reconciliation as a Concept with Ethical Significance........ 62 Advantages and Disadvantages of Referring Directly to Morality............................. 64 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 68 IV. INTERSUBJECTIVITY: THE ETHICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL INTEREMBEDDEDNESS OF INDIVIDUALS AND COLLECTIVITIES .................................... 69 Moral Capacity in the Work of Reconciliation ............................... 69 Capacities of Individuals and Groups Relevant to the Criteria of Reconciliation...................................................................... 79 Nation-states ........................................................................ 79 Persons ................................................................................. 83 Social groups ....................................................................... 86 Summary of the Contributions of Nation-States, Social Groups and Individuals to the Work of Reconciliation ............................................. 89 8 V. TRANSSUBJECTIVITY: THE ETHICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL INTERRELATEDNESS OF ENEMIES ........................................ 93 Coming to Know An Other ............................................................ 93 The Paradoxes of Pain ......................................................... 95 The Meanings of Suffering .................................................. 97 Suffering for the Suffering of Someone Else ...................... 99 Presence to Pain, Suffering and Loss .................................. 100 Transsubjectivity ............................................................................