Literature, the white gaze, and the possibility of conversation
pp. 133-138
in: Sarah Travis, Amelia M. Kraehe, Emily J. Hood, Tyson E. Lewis (eds), Pedagogies in the flesh, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
After school one day, Tim Jung, a high school English teacher, and his students were discussing how Muslim American representation in literature courses in the United States is nearly non-existent. Moreover, attempts to negotiate boundaries of whiteness and non-whiteness in K-12 contexts can fail dramatically. In this chapter, Jung explores this flashpoint—a crisis of representation—by examining the consequences of Fanon's phenomenological approach, while also exploring the reality of a lack of diversity in the literary canon using Mill s' The Racial Contract . Jung concludes that conversation with and recognition of diverse perspectives are essential in addressing issues of representation in the classroom.
