What Happiness Values: Cruel Optimism and the Unobtainable American Dream

• In Event: Rethinking Curriculum and Pedagogies Through Feminist Praxis

Abstract

This paper examines the lives of four undocumented Latina in an effort to extend beyond language and discourse as the girls revisit their border-crossing journeys from Mexico into the United States. In particular, I draw upon Berlant’s (2011) cruel optimism and Ahmed’s (2010b) promise of happiness to reshape understanding trauma in relation to curriculum and education. In particular, expanding notions of trauma that encompass the possibility of existing in a perpetual crisis mode speaks to the affective processes the girls describe not only of crossing the border as a traumatic event, but also pervasive trauma in remaining undocumented. Ahmed’s allure of happiness speaks to the unobtainable American Dream and the ways in which schooling reinforces these values.

Author

• Alycia M. Elfreich, Indiana University - Indianapolis