USING LITERATURE TO EXPLORE INTERPERSONAL THEORY: REPRESENTATION OF RHETORICAL OBJECTIFICATION AND OPPRESSION

• Authors: Thompson Carol , Kleine Michael
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This essay explains pedagogical experiment at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock using a piece of literature as a case study to examine interpersonal-communication concepts and to emphasize a course theme of objectification of other human beings. The course, entitled Rhetoric and Communication, has two co-instructors. One instructor is from Rhetoric and Writing, the other is from Communication. This essay reviews the course they teach, along with the readings they require, and it selects The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, to illustrate how interpersonal themes play out in a literary text and how objectification thwarts deeply personal values. Initially, the essay summarizes key interpersonal concepts (schema theory, coordinated management of meaning, the work of Martin Buber, and Knapp’s work on relationship stages). It then considers students’ work as they produce a “filtered” summary, a summary that endeavours to apply the interpersonal concepts being studied to Kafka’s work. Finally, it explains how summaries work, the “passage hunt” exercise, and how text-based class discussions can lead to lively discussion, robust student writing and a richer understanding of interpersonal concepts as well as the part objectification plays in damaging relationships. Thus, the paper illustrates several pedagogical strategies as it explores how The Metamorphosis becomes a literary case study that answers the question: how did this fictional family create communication that resulted in such communicative tragedy?

Keywords

EN

COMMUNICATION; PEDAGOGY; LITERATURE; OBJECTIFICATION; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; USA

• Publisher: Faculty of Education, Trnava University
• Journal: Pedagogický časopis (Journal of Pedagogy)
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 97 – 115

Contributors

author

Thompson Carol

• University of Arkansas at little rock, Department of communication, 2801 s. University avenue little rock, ar 72204, USA

author

Kleine Michael

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/jped-2016-0013