On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, lissa bloomer wrote:
> how does one teach a feminist sci fi book????? how does one teach a book
> that one loves without going insane? (( i know the "one should only teach
> the books that one loves so that one will be motivated" answer... and i
> know the "jesus, get some distance" answer.... and i know the "you must
> share all the books, you selfish geek" answer....and the "you should be
> teaching an optional class in an arts program" answer...and the "you need
> to go pay for your voice and get your damn phd" answer...))
egads. I don't know. Might the feminist part of a feminist sf book just
teach itself? I guess it depends on the book. In Butler's _Parable of
the Sower_ I'd think you could talk about the play with gender roles
without ever saying the word "feminist" (or perhaps "womanist" is more
appropriate). But that response just plays to the preconception that
feminist is a dirty word, despite the fact that most people--men and
women--seem to agree with its basic premise of equality.
I'm a teaching apprentice right now for a psychology of women course,
though at a very liberal school with a lot of interested students enrolled
in the class. It is still a concern, though, how to talk about the
reality many women face--for example, today's topic was "wife
abuse"--without seeming to demonize men or create a hostile environment
for the men in the class. Suddenly the "science of psychology" (already a
bit flimsy) seems utterly politicized--just as much feminist fiction seems
to many to be too politicized to be good literature.
So, for now, is it permissible and necessary to focus on the traditional
criteria of good literature, and ignore the political components while
including novels that span the political range? Might just their presence
be enough to call the unstated ideologies of the other novels into the
open--maybe thru character and plot comparisons? Or does that undermine
the very novels that you are trying to present?
As to teaching the books you love, Lissa, I can only share my experiences
as a student. Generally, the professor's love is conveyed. Luckily,
however, I have never had to take a course that I didn't choose--so
perhaps I'd be one of your more receptive students rather than the
hypothetical norm. I now share my professor's love and respect for
Dante's Inferno, for example, which I probably never would have discovered
on my own, nor understood even on the few surface levels that I now do.
(sorry for the awful english!) But those professors also taught other
books well, and perhaps more objectively. And, in the end, I value both
aspects. The enthusiasm teaches me to love a text, and maybe a genre or
field. The critical eye teaches me how to learn, how to read, how to
judge. So I guess the perfect course, or at least the perfect education,
would have both at various times.
In any case, Lissa, please don't quit! A professor thinking about these
kinds of things is the kind of professor I'd love to have.
:)
Andrea Klein
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