Description
In times that are rife with complex manifestations of identity politics, writing classrooms across the world are hosting heated debates about what it means for authors to write about experiences outside their own. This book focuses on writing as the act of witnessing when the writers themselves were not present to witness in person. It seeks to answer the questions that come along with these experiences, such as what might it mean to write in order “to watch,” “to try and understand,” “to never look away,” and “to never forget” when the writer is an outsider to an experience? What might it mean to write about others in ways that do not essentialize or sensationalize, and in ways that are as humble, ethical, and responsible as possible? What might it mean to bear witness through the written word while engaged in a constant (re)negotiation with one’s own positioning i.e., to cultivate a condition of critical empathy that doesn’t also have the consequence of creative paralysis?
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction - Setting The Stage
Section One: Examine
Scene One: The Trials, Int. A Room
Scene Two: Int. A Cafe
Examine: Allegories & Abstractions
Scene Three: To Camera
Scene Four: Int. A Classroom
Examine: Autoethnography
Scene Five: Ext. A Street
Scene Six: Int. A Car
Examine: Lacks of Understanding
Scene Seven: Int. A Room
Scene Eight: Int. A Cafe
Examine: Visual Aesthetics
Scene Nine: Int. A Room
Scene Ten: Ext. The Porch of a Building
Examine: Banalities
Scene Eleven: Int. A Room
Scene Twelve: To Camera
Examine: Choices
Scene Thirteen: The Classroom
Scene Fourteen: To Camera
Scene Fifteen: Int. A Classroom
Scene Sixteen: Int. And Ext. Split Screen
Scene Seventeen: To Camera
Examine: Unresolved Endings
Section Two: Explore
Part One: Explore Allegories & Abstractions
Text One
Text Two
Text Three
Part Two: Explore Autoethnography
Text Four
Text Five
Text Six
Part Three: Explore Lacks of Understanding
Text Seven
Text Eight
Text Nine
Part Four: Explore Visual Aesthetics
Text Ten
Text Eleven
Text Twelve
Part Five: Explore Banalities
Text Thirteen
Text Fourteen
Text Fifteen
Part Six: Explore Choices
Text Sixteen
Text Seventeen
Text Eighteen
Part Seven: Explore Unresolved Endings
Text Nineteen
Text Twenty
Text Twenty-One
Section Three: Experiment
Experiment #1
Experiment #2
Experiment #3
Conclusion - One Last Thing
Index
