Language and Literature as “Equipment for Living”.

487 Pages·2012·5.42 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 436 788 CS 216 972
AUTHOR Anderson, Charles M., Ed.; MacCurdy, Marian M., Ed.
TITLE Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice. Refiguring
English Studies.
INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL.
ISBN ISBN-0-8141-5860-9
ISSN ISSN-1073-9647
PUB DATE 2000-00-00
NOTE 486p.
AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon
Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 58609-3050: $22.95
members, $29.95 nonmembers). Tel: [phone] (Toll Free);
Web site: <http://www.ncte.org>.
PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides Non-Classroom (055) Reports
Descriptive (141)
EDRS PRICE MF02/PC20 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; *Bereavement; Death;
Emotional Problems; *Grief; Higher Education; Journal
Writing; Models; Revision (Written Composition); Secondary
Education; Sexual Abuse; *Writing (Composition)
IDENTIFIERS *Healing; Voice (Rhetoric)
ABSTRACT
This book presents 15 essays composed by and directed toward
writing teachers and others who have experienced writing and healing in a
variety of settings--from classrooms to substance-abuse treatment centers to
AIDS support groups. Essays in the book provide not only descriptions of
particular practices but also explorations of areas of theory that support
the development of techniques in healing. After a preface, essays in the book
are: (1) "Introduction" (Charles M. Anderson and Marian M. MacCurdy); (2)
"Whose Voice Is It Anyway?" (Anne Ruggles Gere); (3) "Language and Literature
as 'Equipment for Living': Revision as a Life Skill" (Tilly Warnock); (4)
"Suture, Stigma, and the Pages That Heal" (Charles M. Anderson with Karen
Holt and Patty McGady); (5) "Writing as Healing and the Rhetorical Tradition:
Sorting Out Plato, Postmodernism, Writing Pedagogy, and Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder" (T. R. Johnson); (6) "A Strange Unaccountable Something:
Historicizing Sexual Abuse Essays" (Michelle Payne); (7) "From Trauma to
Writing: A Theoretical Model for Practical Use" (Marian M. MacCurdy); (8)
"Healing and the Brain" (Alice G. Brand); (9) "Pathography and Enabling
Myths: The Process of Healing" (Anne Hunsaker Hawkins); (10) "Language,
Power, and Consciousness: A Writing Experiment at the University of Toronto"
(Guy Allen); (11) "Writing about Suicide" (Jeffrey Berman and Jonathan
Schiff); (12) "Teaching Emotional Literacy" (Jerome Bump); (13) "Writing
through the Fear to Reframe Experience and Discover Values" (Regina Paxton
Foehr); (14) "Voices from the Line: The Clothesline Project as Healing Text"
(Laura Julier); (15) "'The More I Tell My Story': Writing as Healing in an
HIV/AIDS Community" (Emily Nye); and (16) "Las Madres, Upstairs/Downstairs:
From Soul Maps and Story Circles to Intertextual Collaboration" (Sandra
Florence). (RS)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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OffUic eS o fD EEdPucAaRtioTnMal ERNesTe aOrcFh EanDdU ImCpArTovIOemNent
ED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it
Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality
°
dPocinutms eonf tv dieow n oort onpeicneiosnssarsiltyateredp irne stheinst
official OERI position or policy
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
BEEN GRANTED BY
EDITED BY
CHARLES M. ANDERSON
AND MARIAN M. MACCURDY
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
2
Refiguring English Studies provides a forum for
Refiguring
scholarship on English Studies as a discipline, a
I profession, and a vocation. To that end, the series
STUDIES publishes historical work that considers the ways
in which English Studies has constructed itself
and its objects of study; investigations of the relationships among
its constituent parts as conceived in both disciplinary and insti-
tutional terms; and examinations of the role the discipline has
played or should play in the larger society and public policy. In
addition, the series seeks to feature studies that, by their form or
focus, challenge our notions about how the written "work" of
English can or should be done and to feature writings that rep-
resent the professional lives of the discipline's members in both
traditional and nontraditional settings. The series also includes
scholarship that considers the discipline's possible futures or that
draws upon work in other disciplines to shed light on develop-
ments in English Studies.
OTHER VOLUMES IN THE SERIES
DAVID B. DOWNING, editor, Changing Classroom Practices: Re-
sources for Literary and Cultural Studies (1994)
JED RASULA, The American Poetry Wax Museum: Reality Ef-
fects, 1940-1990 (1995)
JAMES A. BERLIN, Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring
College English Studies (1996)
ROBIN VARNUM, Fencing with Words: A History of Writing In-
struction at Amherst College during the Era of Theodore
Baird, 1938-1966 (1996)
JANE MAHER, Mina P. Shaughnessy: Her Life and Work (1997)
MICHAEL BLITZ AND C. MARK HURLBERT, Letters for the Living:
Teaching Writing in a Violent Age (1998)
3
BRUCE HORNER AND MIN-ZHAN Lu, Representing the "Other":
Basic Writers and the Teaching of Basic Writing (1999)
STEPHEN M. NORTH, with BARBARA A. CHEPAITIS, DAVID
COOGAN, LALE DAVIDSON, RON MACLEAN, CINDY L.
PARRISH, JONATHAN POST, and BETH WEATHERBY, Refigur-
ing the Ph.D. in English Studies: Writing, Doctoral Educa-
tion, and the Fusion-Based Curriculum (2000)
Writing and Healing
Toward an Informed Practice
Edited by
CHARLES M. ANDERSON
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
MARIAN M. MACCURDY
Ithaca College
National Council of Teachers of English
1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096
NCTE Editorial Board: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Bobbi Fisher,
Xin Liu Gale, Sarah Hudelson, Bill McBride, Gerald R. Og lan, Helen
Poole, Karen Smith, Chair, ex officio, Michael Greer and Zarina M. Hock,
ex officio
Manuscript Editor: Bob Heister
Prepress Services: G & S Typesetters, Inc.
Production Editor: Rita D. Disroe
Cover Design: Pat Mayer
Cover Photo: Tony Stone Images
Interior Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf
NCTE Stock Number 58609-3050
ISSN 1073-9637
2000 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a
forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the
teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any par-
ticular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Com-
mittee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in
announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Writing and healing : toward an informed practice / edited by Charles M.
Anderson, Marian M. MacCurdy.
p. cm. (Refiguring English studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8141-5860-9
1. Creative writingTherapeutic use. 2. Psychotherapy. I. Ander-
son, Charles M. H. MacCurdy, Marian M. III. Series.
RC489.W75 W756 1999
615.8'515dc21
99-048921
6
This collection is dedicated to the students, colleagues, friends, and other
voyagers whose courage and grace in the face of trauma help us all to trans-
form it.
CONTENTS
PERMISSIONS IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Xi
PREFACE
Marian M. Mac Curdy xv
1 Introduction
Charles M. Anderson
and Marian M. Mac Curdy 1
I Finding Our Way In
2 Whose Voice Is It Anyway?
Anne Ruggles Gere 25
3 Language and Literature as "Equipment for
Living": Revision as a Life Skill
Tilly Warnock 34
4 Suture, Stigma, and the Pages That Heal
Charles M. Anderson
with Karen Holt and Patty McGady 58
II Traditions and Extensions
5 Writing as Healing and the Rhetorical Tradition:
Sorting Out Plato, Postmodernism, Writing
Pedagogy, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
T. R. Johnson. 85
6 A Strange Unaccountable Something: Historicizing
Sexual Abuse,Essays
Michelle Payne 115
7 From Trauma to Writing: A Theoretical Model for
Practical Use
Marian M. Mac Curdy 158
Contents
8 Healing and the Brain
Alice G. Brand
201
9 Pathography and Enabling Myths: The Process of
Healing
Anne Hunsaker Hawkins 222
Ill Writing and Healing in the Classroom
10 Language, Power, and Consciousness: A Writing
Experiment at the University of Toronto
Guy Allen
249
11 Writing about Suicide
Jeffrey Berman and Jonathan Schiff 291
12 Teaching Emotional Literacy
Jerome Bump
313
13 Writing through the Fear to Reframe Experience
and Discover Values
Regina Paxton Foehr
336
IV Writing and Healing in the World
14 Voices from the Line: The Clothesline Project as
Healing Text
Laura Julier
357
15 "The More I Tell My Story": Writing as Healing in
an HIV/AIDS Community
Emily Nye
385
16 Las Madres, Upstairs/Downstairs: From Soul Maps
and Story Circles to Intertextual Collaboration
Sandra Florence
416
INDEX
449
EDITORS
471
CONTRIBUTORS
473
PERMISSIONS
We gratefully acknowledge the publishers who generougly gave us per-
mission to reproduce the following materials:
"Weeds and Peonies" from Without by Donald Hall. Copyright © 1998
by Donald Hall. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Com-
pany. All rights reserved.
"So Not to Be Mottled," by Bernice Zamora, from Infinite Divisions:
An Anthology of Chicana Literature. Ed. Tey Diana Rebolledo and
Eliana S. Rivero. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1993. 78. Reprinted by per-
mission of Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingiie, Arizona State University,
Tempe Arizona.
"Plot," by Pat Mora, from Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana
Literature. Ed. Tey Diana Rebolledo and Eliana S. Rivero. Tucson: U of
Arizona P, 1993. 144. Reprinted with permission from the publisher
of Chants (Houston: Arte Public° Press, University of Houston, 1985).
"Doper's Dream" and "Eagle in the Land of Oz," by Donald Receveur,
from Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans. Ed.
Larry Rottman, Jan Barry, and Basil Paquet. Coventry: First Casualty
Press, 1972. 49, 99. Reprinted by permission of the author.
"Rape," by Marla Humphress. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Figure 8.1 taken from M. S. Gazzaniga, D. Steen, and B. Wolpe, Func-
tional Neuroscience, p. 61. Copyright © 1979 by Harper & Row Pub-
lishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Michael S. Gazzaniga.
Figure 8.2 taken from Mishkin, Mortimer, and Tim Appenzeller. "The
Anatomy of Memory." Scientific American, 256, 6 ( June 1987): 80-
89. Copyright © 1987 by Carol Donner. Reprinted by permission.
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