Young+Adult+Lit+Literary+Theory+Presentation

//** Context: ** One of the assignments for ENGL 675 was to present a literary theory in conjunction with one of the young adult novels that we were to read for the semester. The purpose of this was to expose us to the theory before we finalized our theory-based unit plan for the culminating project. I chose to explore the usage of Cultural Poetics in Ishmael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone. Below is the subsequent handout that I provided for students during the presentation as well as a reflection and notes that were taken during the presentation. // ** //A Long Way Gone// **

** Cultural Poetics Professional Development Presentation ** “//Text is history//; history is text.”

**Purpose**

1) Use Foucault’s idea of episteme to show the connection between history and power in relation to Beah’s experience

2) Use Clifford Geetz’s belief in humans as cultural artifacts to show how Beah attempts to “close the gap” in his society

**__Episteme (Michael Foucault)__**

**What is it?**

A unifying principle or pattern that is at work in any society, which creates a bias and controls how an era/group of people view reality.

**How do I use it?**

Because Sierra Leone was torn between rebel and government forces, we can argue that there were two epistemes present during that time period.

Any society or culture has a rite of passage for their youth. Irina Kyulanova wrote on the inconsistencies in rites of passage in //A Long Way Gone//:

**“The condition sine qua non for a rite of passage to be possible is the existence of a stable social system with clearly distinct stages of childhood and adulthood….The concept of childhood with its attributes of innocence, immaturity, lack of knowledge, and need for protection is no longer valid in either of the worlds portrayed in each text, as some of the children who are plunged into the militarized rite of passage or are forced to take care of themselves have not even reached adolescent age….The boundary between adolescence and adulthood is also fuzzy in both texts. Beah's memoir questions the grounds for distinguishing child soldiers from other soldiers, and leaves seventeen-year-old Ishmael thinking of himself as a child, yet acting independently and more competently than some of the adults” (Kyulanova).**

a. How do the unstable “social system” and the presence of multiple epistemes within Sierra Leone’s society form Ishmael Beah’s view of reality? Find a passage that supports Beah’s view (or views) of reality.

b. How does Beah’s view of reality give him “power”? How is power relative to the history and context of Beah’s text?

**__Humans as cultural artifacts (Clifford Geetz)__**

**What is it?**

Humans cannot be independent from their culture; therefore, every human’s experience is a cultural artifact. Geetz claims that there is gap in society because any society cannot know everything that happens among its entire people.

**How do I use it?**

a. What cultural artifcats are present in Beah’s memoir? How do they impact the novel as whole? What implications do these have for the reader? What do they offer the audience?

b. If a text is a social document that reflects and responds to a historical situation, how is Beah’s memoir not only an extension of the historical context in which he lived, but also an attempt to bridge the gap in his war-torn country?

**Sources**

Bressler, Charles E. //Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice//.

4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

Kyulanova, Irina. “From Soldiers to Children: Undoing the Rite of Passage in

Ishmael Beah’s //A Long Way Gone// and Bernard Ashley’s //Little Soldier//.”

//Studies in the Novel.// 2010 Spring/Summer; 42(1/2): 28-47.

Literary Theory Presentation Reflection
Dr. Hartman, The first thing I wanted to say is **thank you** for pushing me outside of my comfort zone! I learned that I’m actually pretty comfortable outside of my nice, neat, little organized box that I’ve been living in! I had a really good time putting the presentation & material together. (My husband called me a nerd the whole time because I was getting excited and doing some fist pumping at the kitchen table.) As I was creating the lesson, I began to really think how important it is for students to be exposed to literary theory, even if it is just a little sprinkle or seasoning. I took into consideration the most applicable parts of Cultural Poetics and made them very applicable (even more so than I thought in planning for it) to //A Long Way Gone//. But like anything I plan on teaching, I was really nervous about the whole thing crashing and burning, but I was pleasantly surprised by the meaningful and honest discussion we had as a whole class.

I let the whole experience, my initial reflection and the feedback I got from the class sit and stew overnight so I could look at it with fresh eyes this morning, and I realized I didn’t go into as much depth about epistemes and the idea of rites of passage as much as I wanted to, or as much as I should have. Several people had questions about it after the presentation was done. Now that I know this, I’m going to be sure that for my research project that I explain and incorporate more of this concept into my lessons and research. I also had great suggestions that I will also be sure to take into account – starting with a “here is what you should know when we’re done” and define CP a little more thoroughly before starting going into greater depth with specific concepts/ideas. I also thought about doing some more background information about the theorists as well.

Although the constructive criticism from any sort of presentation is always welcome in my eyes, I always tend to overlook the positive reactions, but this time it made me feel like I opened some people’s perspectives of the text and helped people understand something that didn’t click before. (I was really proud of myself, too! I could definitely see how my hard work paid off.) I also got some great questions that I cannot answer that I’ll have to do some research on and maybe talk to Dr. Land about. (I am going to post a blog answering the questions on Ning once I find the answers.) One of them in particular really made me start to think about the validity of young adult literature as a cultural artifact. The student asked, “If we are to use Beah’s work as an artifact, do we have to verify or validate his writings or shall we accept it as it is without further research?” Perhaps this is one of the essential questions that we can try to answer as teachers and learners. Does everything have to be “verified or validated” in order to be accepted? I certainly think that YA literature is valid in its own right, but what about in the scholarly world where people are more hesitant about its literary worth or value? Perhaps more theoretical work done with YA lit could change the bad rap that YA lit can sometimes get. Now that I think about this, I think this is where I would like to focus my attention for my capstone research project. Yeah. Now I’m convinced. Perhaps taking literary theory and then your class in subsequent order was so I could see where my own focus and passion lie.

Sincerely, Lorelei

Presentation Notes
 These are the notes I made on my master copy in my daybook. The handwriting in ** GREEN ** pen is everything I added while we were discussing the topics I chose for the workshop. I gleaned so much more than I ever imagined from this project and it really helped me see how much validity young adult literature has in our educational society.