Teaching Humanity: Literary Imagining and "the Overrepresentation of Man"

• In Event: "Inhuman" Literacies: Beyond a Politics of Inclusion/Exclusion in Education

Abstract

Objectives

English Education accounts for and forwards in literature particular notions of humanity rooted in patriarchy, white supremacy, and the erasure of Black and Brown peoples. We argue for a re-engagement with humanity to consider curriculum literary texts for their potential to decenter whiteness, rather than reproducing the human/subhuman binary (Wynter, 2003), particularly in canonical texts that are often offered as opportunities to critically engage issues of social justice.

Perspectives of Theoretical Framework

Following Leigh Patel’s discussion of the use The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2016) alongside Morrison’ s (1992) argument about the whiteness of the literary imagination and the erasure of complex and nuanced Blackness, we read these texts as parts of the assemblage of schooling. We consider how English teachers might be prepared to navigate complex racial histories in selection of texts with regard to humanity and race. We draw on Wynter’s (2003) work on the “overrepresentation of man” and how this norm of humanity quietly influences what texts are insisted upon for inclusion, as other alternative texts continue to go ignored.

Methods, Techniques, or Modes of Inquiry

The books that make up an English curriculum are particularly important, as English as a subject-area is tasked with preparing young people to read, write, and think in ways that are recognized as acceptable by educational structures. In tension with this is the increased desire for English curriculum to be resistant to structures that serve to oppress by helping students develop empathy and less deadly approaches to difference. We are interested in thinking about alternative ways of determining the use of texts that make up an English curriculum with an engagement with questions of humanity and how the texts reproduce and/or disrupts stuck notions of what it means to be human or what it feels like to be human.

Scientific or Scholarly Significance of the Study

In teacher education, the critical address of curricular issues of race remains insufficient. The English classrooms are sites of potential resistance destable hierarchal norms that reposition people according to race. The potential of English education goes largely unrealized without meaningful engagement with issues of racism as it is connected to humanity.

Authors

• Asilia K Franklin-Phipps, University of Oregon

• Courtney Rath, University of Oregon