“People, especially intellectuals, believe that they cannot think! They are trained to say what fits into a pre-existing public discourse. They remain numb about what could arise from themselves in response to the literature and the world. People live through a great deal which cannot be said. They are forced to remain inarticulate about it because it cannot be said in the common phrases. People are silenced! TAE an empower them to speak from what they are living through.”
Wow! What a powerful statement. This resonates with me so much as a feminist and a teacher.
I’m reminded on the one hand of Clara Juncker’s 1988 College English article discussing using Cixous as a touchstone in feminist pedagogy as a way of unsilencing our students. While Cixous is a bit essentialist for my liking, I love the way Juncker carries Cixous’ connections between writing and embodiment to the classroom. On the other hand, ELbow’s work comes to mind, specifically Writing Without Teachers. Reading the above passage from Gendlin calls these same sentiments to mind; that as teachers, we’re duty-bound (or we should be) to empower our students.
