I thought for this post, I would express both the highs and lows that I experienced teaching media clips for our CSCL 1301W (Reading Culture) in a brief manner. For the course, in which we were investigating 'criticism culture,' i.e., the predominance of discourse that is critical of everything (What Not to Wear, Political Theater ala Fox News, etc.), I asked them to bring in any internet videos, news paper articles, etc. so that we could discuss them together as a way of beginning class. This was, when they actually brought in materials (about 50% of the time) a great way to start each class. As it was a one-day a week night class, this allowed us to discuss the clip in relation to what we had previously discussed, and it gave me the ability to foreshadow upcoming readings/concepts.
1) Complete failure - Juliet's Sassy Gay Friend. A somewhat quiet, but altogether brilliant older student, took serious exception to this clip--in the process of which he was 'forced' to express his own sexual position to the rest of the class in the midst of his criticism of the clip as being representative of hurtful stereotypes that he was invested in critiquing. I tried to follow the critique by situating the 'sassy gay' trope in relation to Hollywood under the Hays Code, and historicize the harmfulness of said trope, but really I felt like all the air had been sucked out of me. I screened the clip before class during my lecture prep, and I had intended to discuss it in relation to the question of authority, history, and 'great works,' that we had been working on in previous weeks. Yet, as Adorno critiques Benjamin's optimism of Chaplin, the laughs of the class were more directed at the the 'funny gay guy,' than the critique (as I saw it coming at the expense of the the canonical status of the text as 'the greatest love story ever'). Yet, I simply did not see this coming. That's what makes it all the worse for me in thinking that I might have implicitly been creating an environment that felt unsafe for the LGBT community.
2) Great success -- Dave Chappelle on Gender and Dress. I also used other clips, from his other stand-up special, and received more positive comments about including this in my course than any other material. I decided to use this as a way of opening up a chapter from John Berger's Ways of Seeing -- namely his discussion of the construction of gender roles as they developed through the genre of painting 'nudes'. The basic thesis of the chapter is "Men act. Women are looked at." Chappelle, as you have seen, illustrates this is a very direct way--women at the club, "telling" men how they want them to act toward them (we, of course, complicate this as a culturally produced 'way of seeing' rather than a psychological/anthropological fact), and the police uniform which suggests his power to act. What I took from this is, as a colleague suggested, if I can teach them this through Dave Chappelle, why include Berger at all?
As an aside, in relation to this type of activity of discussing material in general, what are people's thoughts on foreshadowing. I often find myself using this technique in two ways. Firstly, I use it to table certain avenues of discussion -- e.g., a student talks about boredom and I say, "Yes. Good Point. We're actually going to be discussing the concept of boredom later alongside Adam Phillips," or something like that. Secondly, I attempt to use it to by means of demonstrating the cohesiveness of the constellation that we're attempting to develop throughout the course. I can't say that I have much experience as a student with this teacherly-act. As an act of critical pedagogy, should we put student responses on the table--while pointing to how these students are, in fact and so to speak, anticipating/understanding the trajectory of the course--or do we have a responsibility to engage these thoughts as they emerge? Any thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment