M 1:45- 4:44pm, Fisher-Bennett 407.
The course examines several theoretical models that use the concept of dialogue as a basis for the construction of self and apply dialogic processes to relationships within the in-group and with out-group others. Students will read and discuss the function and impact of different generic texts upon the writer through her writing, and on the reader who is exposed to experiences and life stories unfamiliar and different than his/her own. The issue of the feasibility of dialogue between members of groups in conflict is presented through reading, discussing, and enacting life stories of true case studies, as well as listening to guest speakers.
To facilitate the conceptual understanding of the kind of listening necessary for a successful dialogue students will use classical sources to read, practice and discuss the kind of relationships where each person relates to the other as a whole person with their own subjectivity. Students will gain knowledge and understand the skills that contribute to a successful dialogue across differences.
Students will read an indigenous Australian hybrid memoir and understand how an autobiographical story is also a story of the other, a collaborative work, not simply a witness testimony. As the autobiographer begins to include the stories of others and learns their impact on their own life, the dialogue changes and elaborates one’s identity.
Addressing directly the form and function of autobiographical writing, and the importance of the choice of words, students will be exposed to some autobiographical works that use the life experiences of the self, which uncover and articulate discrimination, humiliation, and shame experienced by marginalized individuals and groups. Students will learn how shedding light on one’s own experience, also reveals unspoken internalized power relations linked to class, race, gender and age felt by the people who directly experience their impact. Such written and read exposure may lead to the dialogization of existing opinions and attitudes, to individual emancipation and to collective wellness.
Finally, to explore the possibility and difficulties of dialogue between groups in conflict, the class will focus on a biographical novel written by the Irish author Colum McCann about the true story of two fathers, a Palestinian and an Israeli who both lost their own teenage daughters to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Their two stories become one story which they carry as a message of healing and peace around the world. Students will enact in class the dialogue between the men and learn the skills that contribute to a robust dialogue. The two fathers and the author of the book will be invited to talk about the impressively successful dialogue.