The role of literature in intercultural language education

Abstract

In this article we discuss how the design of a higher education language course can challenge the power of sentimentality in the classroom. In particular, the paper analyses the role of literature in intercultural language education through the lens of affect theory, while focusing on minimizing sentimentality in the classroom, especially when the literary texts used confront students with trauma-related content involving human rights abuse, death and suffering, and trigger discomforting emotions in students such as sadness, anguish, fear and more. We suggest that it is important for educators and students in higher education to recognize the affective and biopolitical dimensions of literature teaching in intercultural language education. This is illustrated through the design of an English language course syllabus in an Argentinian higher education setting. The paper concludes with a discussion of the curricular and pedagogical implications for intercultural language education.

Pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom: Ethical tensions and considerations for educators

“…The concept of pedagogy of discomfort initially emerged from the work of feminist cultural theorist Megan Boler, who examined the histories of emotions in education in relation to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the United States (Boler, 1999;Boler & Zembylas, 2003;Zembylas, 2015;Zembylas & Boler, 2002). Over the years, the concept of pedagogy of discomfort has expanded through the work of other scholars in several areas, including language education (e.g., Austin, 2016;Byram et al, 2023;Cutri & Whiting, 2015;Ennser-Kananen, 2016;Head, 2020;Leibowitz et al, 2010;Ohito, 2016;Osborn, 2016;Porto & Zembylas, 2022a, 2022b, 2022cWeseley et al, 2016;Woodley, 2016;Zembylas & McGlynn, 2012;Zembylas & Papamichael, 2017). The fundamental idea of pedagogies of discomfort is the use of pedagogical activities that move students and teachers outside their comfort zones.…”

“…Both of us have done research on pedagogies of discomfort for more than two decades, having opportunities to not only see firsthand their tremendous potential in sociopolitical settings that suffered from massive human rights abuses, trauma, violence, and injustice but also consider the ethical, affective, political, and pedagogical risks and dilemmas emerging from this pedagogical approach. During all this time, our understanding and evaluation of this approach has continuously evolved, particularly in the context of world language teaching, within which the first author has implemented several projects using pedagogies of discomfort in her university classroom in the last 25 years and the second author has acted as a critical friend (Merriam, 1998), contributing etic perspectives and reflections (Porto & Zembylas, 2020a, 2020b, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c. In these projects, we often noticed (or failed to do so until much later) several ethical tensions arising.…”