Shari Stenberg: Emotion as "Public Text"
An associate professor of english at University of Nebraska, Shari Stenberg has authored two books and numerous journal articles on feminist pedagogy and the interplay between emotion, listening, and argumentation. In her influential article "Teaching and the (Re)Learning the Rhetoric of Emotion," Stenberg discusses the feminist implications of emotion studies and outlines a writing pedagogy that presents emotion as a socially and historically constructed discourse. In addition to understanding emotion within cultural systems like race or gender, Stenberg's pedagogy also encourages students to engage their emotions as valuable resources for knowledge production in themselves. Thus, her approach to teaching emotion is two-fold: first analytical and then generative.
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"Whether we acknowledge it or not, emotion is necessarily part of reading, composing, and knowledge production; that is, emotion plays a key role in pedagogical and rhetorical work." |
The Analytical
Central to Stenberg's pedagogy is her conception of emotion as a "public, political text" ("Teaching" 354). She argues that students in writing classrooms should learn to read emotion as a rhetoric--as a public, embodied phenomenon shaped by cultural and political contexts. The course materials and assignments used in her pedagogy are all text-based, unlike those suggested by Laura Micciche. Stenberg mentions assigning her students Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Nancy Mairs' Carnal Acts, and Nomy Lamm's "It's a Big Fat Revolution." She directs her students to ask of their assigned readings questions like:
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The Generative
Stenberg argues that emotion should be valued as a valid form of knowledge production not inferior to--or separate from--rational thought. It's not enough to teach students to analyze emotion from a cool, rational distance. Rather, Stenberg wants to get her students thinking with emotion.
In a course where most of the assigned readings were emotionally-charged, controversial pieces by women and women-of-color writers, Stenberg noticed her students' angry, put-off reactions in class discussion. Echoing Megan Boler's pedagogy of discomfort, she encourages writing instructors to pause in these moments and lead students through a self-reflexive, emotional inquiry (361). What are your emotions telling you? What knowledge is disclosed to you by your emotional responses to this text? In this way, students learn to think about their own emotional investments, the way they are influenced by ideological systems, and ultimately learn to "merge reason and emotion" (362).
In a course where most of the assigned readings were emotionally-charged, controversial pieces by women and women-of-color writers, Stenberg noticed her students' angry, put-off reactions in class discussion. Echoing Megan Boler's pedagogy of discomfort, she encourages writing instructors to pause in these moments and lead students through a self-reflexive, emotional inquiry (361). What are your emotions telling you? What knowledge is disclosed to you by your emotional responses to this text? In this way, students learn to think about their own emotional investments, the way they are influenced by ideological systems, and ultimately learn to "merge reason and emotion" (362).
"Students cannot be forced to engage in a different kind of knowledge making; however, if an invitation is issued, and if that invitation is reinforced by textual models in the course readings, then...the space is there should students wish to occupy it." |
In addition to assigned readings and class discussion, emotion was also foregrounded in Stenberg's approach to responding to student writing. In response to reading Mairs' Carnal Acts, one of Stenberg's students incorporated a related reflection on the feelings of anxiety she experienced in the process of coming to know her female body and 'becoming a woman.' In her response, Stenberg commented in such a way as to highlight this way of thinking with positive encouragement and further questions.
To get students thinking with emotion, to get them to understand emotion as a valuable part of meaning making, every facet of a course should expose students to a new understanding of emotion and invite them to engage with it. Stenberg's choice of readings, approach to responding to student writing, and her willingness to dwell in discomfort during class discussion all work together to immerse students in this alternative knowledge setting. |