Abstract
Reclaiming grief of the past can forge a more equitable future. Racial memories should not be buried by a hegemonic canon. In our antiracism work, we recover histories of injustice. We unbury memory and explore racialized subjects and specters in the literary canon. Unsilenced, their alienation calls attention to failures of an unjust society. Through an antiracist strand that is foundational in curriculum planning, I explore collective memory in Beloved and examine the spectral figures in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. I also share approaches to Things Fall Apart, such as studying poetry from a National Endowment for Humanities Project with ISITA: the Institute for Study of Islamic Thought in Africa. Retrieval of these voices connects us to a past ruptured through violence. Lessons include language analysis and thematic exploration of racial melancholia. We uncover loss and carry grievances to claim restitution for figures of color. We explore invisibility and specters as they function in ethnic literature. I examine racial melancholia and how this reading approach is a means to recover lost histories and voices. Scholarship includes a psychoanalytical framework for understanding racial grievance. I share sample lessons on using nonfiction sources in conjunction with the novels. These include historical and current texts from sociology and history, such as theories on collective memory and cultural haunting.
Presenters
Jennifer Arias SweeneyAdjunct Faculty, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Illinois, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Diversity, Multiculturalism, Race, Equity, Pedagogy, Practice, Literature
