Practices for Addressing Affective Difficulty in the Writing Classroom

Pedagogy Oct 2022

Practices for Addressing Affective Difficulty in the Writing Classroom

Rachel McCabe

Abstract

Abstract Any attempt to control the content and conversations of first-year composition classrooms has become increasingly complicated by social media and technology. Building on the types of textual difficulty explored by scholars like Mariolina Rizzi Salvatori and Patricia Donahue, Jeffrey Berman, and Alan Purves, this article considers the challenges presented to contemporary college-level readers by affectively difficult texts such as David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet. The article also explores the potential responses students express to difficult texts and encourages flexibility in the assumptions made about these reactions. By working through the importance of these questions, the author ultimately examines the potential benefits and best strategies of using difficult fictional texts in the writing classroom to help students investigate the nuances of verbal and written conversations such as those created by the #MeToo movement.

Journal: Pedagogy
Published: 2022-10-01
DOI: 10.1215/15314200-9859252
Open Access: Closed
Topics: first-year composition social media affect and writing

Citation Context

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Cites in this index (1)

Ellwanger (2017)

No Exit

Pedagogy

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Dismantling Whiteness: Silent Yielding and the Potentiality of Political Suicide

Contemporary Political Theory ↗
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Do Witness: Don't: A Woman's Word and Trauma as Pedagogy

TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies ↗

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