What’s a story? In response to that question, many of us might think of a tale with a beginning, middle and an end, or maybe a literary classic of short fiction like Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” or Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl.”
But stories exist beyond the page. They’re part of our everyday repertoire for coping with existence.
One way to define the term “story” is any attempt—written, told, or perhaps most commonly and powerfully, thought—to impose a narrative on life.
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From empirical studies on the psychological impact of reading to such philosophical perspectives as Martha Nussbaum’s notion of literature’s capacity to foster the “moral imagination” of readers, intellectuals across the disciplines have established a growing consensus about the power of reading to foster empathy, a crucial civic intelligence in a free society and a powerful aptitude for professional success and leadership skills. While a growing body of evidence reveals the incredible power of literary reading to promote imaginative empathy and intellectual curiosity, that potential may not be achieved through the reading experience alone, especially given inequalities in formal backgrounds and educational experiences at most workplaces (and in many communities).
My years of teaching have taught me that tried-and-true conversation is the most enduring method of bridging differences and sharing ideas, and conversations about books make the most of their capacity to enhance readers’ empathy.
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For Books@Work professor Gail Arnoff, James McBride’s The Color of Water is more than a memorable family story. It’s an opportunity for conversation, for exploring identity, family and history in the Books@Work seminar as well as in the traditional classroom. As she writes, “We talked about Ruth’s refusal to reveal anything about her background; childrearing; and racial and religious exclusion. In the last session, we discussed the burden of family secrets – in the book as well as in our own families. Most of all we talked about our identity, and the places from which it comes. So many passages in the book triggered discussions, including McBride’s own declaration: ‘Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul….[When] I look at Holocaust photographs…I think to myself, There but for the grace of God goes my own mother—and by extension, myself.'”
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Recently, Program and Curriculum Director Jessica Isaac sat down with a group of SUNY-Fredonia professors to talk about their experience with Books@Work. What she learned surprised her. Without the teaching objectives they are required to use in the classroom, these faculty felt adrift, even nervous–at the same time, they were invigorated. Many working in education complain that we live in an age of overassessment. They rarely talk about how assessment can be comforting and comfortable. But is comfort really the mark of a quality educational experience?
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I think that hard conversations reveal that we possess a fundamental sense of justice and responsibility and care. Hard conversations show us, experientially, that we are moral beings, and any education worth the name will allow us to reflect upon, and understand, that personal moral core. . . The last thing I would want my students to do is take a purely dispassionate approach to Chris Burden’s self-destructive performance pieces, the systemic, institutional racism and torture found in J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, the traumatic historiographic ambitions of the World War II combat film genre, or the extremely graphic murders described in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho.
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In which we say goodbye to Rachel Burstein, our Academic Director, as she pursues opportunities closer to home (and her young child) in California. Rachel wrote frequently about the program on this blog, and in other venues. In this post, she reflects on special aspects of the Books@Work experience. Please join us in thanking Rachel for her powerful contributions to the growth and development of Books@Work, and encouraging her to keep in touch.
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In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Mark Bauerlein, Emory University English professor, took aim at an increasingly broken higher education system, this time with professors in his cross-hairs. “You can’t become a moral authority,” he writes “if you rarely challenge students in class and engage them beyond it.” But Books@Work demonstrates that the professor is not only a moral authority, but a powerful agent for effective change.
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Last month Books@Work organized a gathering for Cleveland-area college and university professors who have taught, are teaching or plan to teach in Books@Work seminars graciously hosted by Case Western Reserve University’s Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, a major hub of humanities activity in the Northeast Ohio region. Along with an opportunity to socialize, attendees were introduced to the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, a prestigious prize awarded to literature that confronts racism and celebrates diversity. We look forward to many opportunities to deepen our partnership with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and with the Baker-Nord Center in the coming year.
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Allison Schifani, a veteran professor of Books@Work seminars reflects on the willingness of participants to engage with theory. She writes, “My experience leading Books@Work seminars has offered a wonderful, and surprising, counter to the narrative that seems most popularly accepted about literary theory. Participants arrive with ease and enjoyment at a critical reading that is sometimes nearly impossible to get from my undergraduate students. It helped me remember that while the literary critic and her language might be unpopular, the work she does is work that matters.”
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A work of literature enabled people from different backgrounds and with different interests to engage intellectually and socially in a way they might not have otherwise. And great mysteries like Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep are especially suited to that type of engagement, as the genre requires them to be highly believable while also allowing for wide speculation. Four months later, I still find myself returning to their reflections.
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