Monsters and Others

     Race/racism and sexuality in literature can be difficult topics to discuss in any literature classroom, even at the collegiate level.  The topics are so difficult to discuss in part because they are wrapped up in so many personal values and beliefs of students in the classroom.  This throws many barriers in the way of looking at the content because the reader must first acknowledge their own biases and beliefs before they can analyze the beliefs that are portrayed within a piece of literature.
     Last week we read an article by Zuba called, "Monstrosity and Majority: Defamiliarizing Race in the college classroom".  The author talked about taking the approach of first dealing with monsters in the text and how they are portrayed and why, before moving to race and how different races are perceived and portrayed in literature.  This technique allows the students to be objective because they are not emotionally/culturally invested in how monsters are portrayed.  They are open to receiving these portrayals and thoughts and they are open to analyzing why they are portrayed in this light.  Consequently, when the students move from monsters to looking at a race they can more easily continue to use the lenses that they were previously looking at the literature through.
     This concept is similar to the article that we read this week called, "Befriending the Medieval Queer: A Pedagogy for Literature Classes" by Zeikowitz.  He states, "The pedagogical approach I propose here is not restricted to analyzing critically how some medieval texts construct queer/ normative boundaries. Reading queer also invites students to examine how their own cultural backgrounds influence their response to monstrous Others in medieval texts. A queer pedagogical approach to medieval literature thus has a political agenda: its overall goal is to create a society more accepting of difference" (76).  As a teacher, we can see that it is important to critically engage with a text to understand why characters are portrayed a certain way and how that relates or conflicts with beliefs and portrayals in the present day.  Readers need to recognize how their own cultural backgrounds influence how they read and interpret literature to be able to critically analyze the role of the character portrayals within literary works.
    "Giroux's critical pedagogy does not rest with reevaluating the past. He suggests that it can transform contemporary society. This transformation can occur only if students come to realize the part they play in an exploitative and unjust society. A queer critical pedagogy leads students who do not consider themselves oppressed marginalized, or silenced to examine the position of "queer" in texts as well as contemporary society, and, most important, it encourages these students to evaluating critically the role they may play in the denigration of both fictional and "real" queers (68-69)."  This is the political agenda that we see played out in all of these articles, from Zuba to Zeikowitz to Winans.  It is the idea of evaluating your understanding of your role in society of creating the "Others" and once that understanding is present, only then can you begin to "transform contemporary society".  This I would argue is some of the most important work that can be accomplished in a literature classroom, the literature is simply the vehicle to lead to that social understanding and change in society.