Transcript Poetry Ethics ConferenceMCT

It’s What Poets & Ethnographers Do: “Utter Mutuality”
Through Literary Ethnography
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor with Kuo Zhang
Introduction
KUO’S FIRST ATTEMPT
by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor
Questions concerning the ethics of representation are
not new to either the fields of anthropology or creative
writing. Anthropologists (e.g. Denzin, 1997; Lather,
2008) and creative writers (e.g. Quigley 2011; Saje,
2009) alike have focused attention to issues related to
privilege and power and the fine representational line
between recognition and commodification of the
“Other” in any kind of writing that involves
asymmetrical power relations between the
representational writer and the subject whom is being
written about.
Objective: Utter Mutuality
This research draws attention to the ethical pitfalls
and possibilities inherent in literary anthropology
(poetic inquiry in particular), to identify qualities of
practice that are responsible, humble, and reflexive
which advance the project of “exquisite mutuality”
(Boyle, 2013) in multicultural education. Through
poetry and creative scholarly prose, I (Melisa
Cahnmann-Taylor)) recount my scholARTistry,
guided by both ethnographic and poetic principles to
increase understandings of multicultural education in
teaching preparation. I examine poetry writing as a
method and representation of ethnographic inquiry,
looking at my own writing of a dramatic monologue
in the voice of Kuo Zhang, a Chinese graduate
student and research participant in my teacher
education inquiry project. I also examine Kuo’s use
of the dramatic monologue in the context of a
poetry course for TESOL educators.
So nervous I almost forget key
to my boyfriend car. He know best
way to get there on Chinese
time: early. Wait room still full, at least
10 American in line at DDS
I so nervous, I almost forget key
on plastic chair. My boyfriend tease
me, say I forget right from left
way, urge me think in Chinese
all steps before say hello to White Lady.
She famous on immigrant blog, detest
foreigners. I so nervous, forget turn key
for ignition. I look boyfriend way, freeze
when she say blinker or braker, I make guess
to move. Boyfriend in backseat whisper Chinese
word. You fail! she say. You learn for speak
English first! She not even give me chance for pass
test. So nervous, I almost forget key
rule on U.S. road: don’t speak Chinese.
Research Questions
• What do anthropologists and poets share and what might we learn from one another regarding the ethical
and aesthetic considerations of writing in, about and for the voice of the “Other” in writing that crosses
cultural, linguistic, and racial differences among others?
• What are the risks and what are the possibilities of such writing? What considerations must be attended to
by those whose aim is both ethnographic and poetic within the literary turn in ethnography?
ONE CHILD POLICY
by Kuo Zhang
When Ms. Feng Jianmei was senven months pregnant
in a remote village in Shannxi province, local officials
forced her to have an abortion since she failed to pay
the fines for violating China’s one-child policy.
---The New York Times, June 26, 2012
They said my boy shouldn’t be born
because I already have a girl.
They took me into custody.
I couldn’t afford the 40,000 yuan fine.
They gave me an injection of
anesthetic and poison.
Then my seven-month son
stopped kicking and giggling
in my womb.
They didn’t inform my husband
about the surgery.
Two Forms of Knowledge--Ethnographic and Poetic
1. Ethnographic knowledge
a. Preselection phenomenon for study
b. Systemic data collection (e.g. interviews,
recordings, photos, etc.)
c. Analysis of data sets with grounded theory
2. Poetry knowledge
a. Craft & compression (e.g. diction, line, tone,
meter, figuration etc.--most meaning in the
fewest and most musical words)
b. Rupture and expansion upon traditions
c. Articulation of emotion, taboo, and the
unexpected.
Shared: observation, note-taking, rigorous
reflection, ethnical considerations, micro-macro
factors, make the ordinary strange & the strange
ordinary, publish.
Poetry Workshop with Tom Lux
LUX: is her broken English, plausible, believable? She knows a fair amount of English, like a lot of us
in foreign languages, she doesn’t have the grammar straight.
POET: I think you have a problem trying to read something like this out loud because if you’re going
to have to say the Rs like Ls, so you have to really go for it if you’re gonna do it
LUX: That’s an interesting question, do you really have to do that but then we’re bordering on parody
that could be stretched to racism. You know “flied lice” stereotypes; we would have a hard time with
their sounds too….It is the artist’s job to write in other people’s voices. I remember someone asking a
senior Czech writer who’d written a novel from the point of view of a 15 year old girl in a
concentration camp who was raped and someone asked him [how he could do that] and he said, “You
know, ‘that’s my job. that’s my job to do that.” It’s the writers job to embody other people.