“Shame at being human” as a transformative political concept and praxis: Pedagogical possibilities

Abstract

Feminist theorizations have recovered the ethical and political value of shame, suggesting that shame operates not only as a mechanism of normalization and social exclusion but also as a primary affect of intersubjective life. This paper argues that this theorization can be enriched by putting into conversation Agamben’s and Deleuze’s interactions with Primo Levi on shame as an ambivalent affect. What is shameful, for both Deleuze and Agamben, is not simply the sense of being judged by others as unworthy, unwanted, or wrong, but rather the awareness of one’s complicity in Others’ suffering. This essay explores the pedagogical openings of shame as the inability of the self to respond to Others’ suffering. The paper concludes by suggesting that certain experiences of shame can be transformative in that they create pedagogical possibilities that could subvert negative referents of shame. What the author terms critical pedagogies of shame pay explicit attention to the affective complexities of the narratives of oppression and suffering that enter the classroom and interrogate in particular the trappings of normative narratives of shame.

The Shame of Drinking Alcohol While Pregnant: The Production of Avoidance and Ill-Health

“…However, shame also holds multiple possibilities for social justice efforts when deployed for resistance, activism and critical pedagogies. (p. 146) Shame accrues around a sense of being judged by others or the self as unworthy or wrong, as acting in unacceptable ways, or as being complicit in the suffering of others (Zembylas, 2019). It is premised on, first, normative understandings of correct actions such as behaviors that constitute a healthy pregnancy and, second, on obligations or responsibilities to others such as the fetus during pregnancy.…”

Enfoques para promover la participación infantil y adolescente

“…Por otra parte, en un sentido más amplio, la vergüenza es una emoción fundamental, y como tal ha sido abordada por diversas pensadoras feministas (Probyn, 2005;Locke, 2007Locke, , 2016Probyn et al, 2018;Fischer, 2018;Shefer & Munt, 2019;Zembylas, 2019), quienes a pesar de estar muy conscientes del papel clave que la vergüenza ha jugado en los sistemas patriarcales, colonialistas y racistas, insisten en explorar también su lado positivo o su potencial pedagógico y político para los proyectos feministas de justicia social. Sobre todo, el "giro afectivo" de algunos enfoques feministas (Shefer & Munt, 2019) ha impulsado un renovado interés en la dimensión política de la vergüenza, y en cómo a través de ella se pueden subvertir arraigados patrones de abuso y discriminación, de lo cual el movimiento "MeToo" es un ejemplo claro (p. 146).…”

A feminist politics of shame: Shame and its contested possibilities

“…Such productivity is linked to the importance of “everyday stories of shame” and how they facilitate empathy at both an interpersonal and wider political level, allowing us “to develop a wider notion of the everyday – of what is personal and what is social” (Probyn, 2004, p. 336). The deployment of shame towards productive social justice projects appears to have had particular traction in feminist and social justice pedagogical thinking and practice, where a rapidly growing body of work is foregrounding strategies of affective work in social justice pedagogies (for example, Boler, 1999; Zembylas, 2013, 2019, this issue). In South Africa, with its postcolonial and post-apartheid legacies, research and practices towards transforming higher education and critical social justice pedagogies have proliferated (for example Bozalek, Braidotti, Shefer, & Zembylas, 2018; Leibowitz et al.…”

“…Shame is closely entangled with gender subjectification and normative gender binarisms, which are raced, classed and enmeshed with other forms of intersectionalities. However, shame also holds multiple possibilities for social justice efforts when deployed for resistance, activism and the critical pedagogies, which feminist, decolonial and critical scholars have elaborated on (for example, Munt, 2007; Probyn, 2005; Probyn with Bozalek, Shefer, & Carolissen, 2019, this issue; Zembylas, 2019, this issue). The contemporary proliferation of online communication and social media notably provides novel and increased spaces for the deployment of shame as a means both for control and regulation and for the political and pedagogical project of challenging injustices (for example, Hall & Hearn, 2017; Munt, 2017; Shewarega, 2018).…”

“…Further, whether focused on the personalised or political nature of shame, much of the existing literature has focused on the negative and destructive aspects of shaming. However, there is a minor strand of both older and developing research, particularly within pedagogical spaces (for example, Hooks, 1994;Zembylas, 2008Zembylas, , 2019 and feminist work on the cultural representations of shame (e.g. Munt, 2007;Probyn, 2004), that argues for the value of shame in projects of social justice.…”