Inside Out Perspectives on John Updike’s A&P

Curriculum Inquiry, 2011

In this article, we examine John Updike's short story "A&P" and its depiction of the grocery store as a curricular space re/presenting consumption and resistance to it. We position Updike's fictional A&P as a space where the "big curriculum" (Schubert, 2006a) of consumption is enacted in everyday life and explore both how the curriculum of consumption works and how resistance to consumerism might operate. We argue that this story provides insight into how consumption works as educational practice-one that teaches us how to be consumers, how to operate within consumer capitalism, and how to accept consumerism as natural-and also raises more specific questions about consumptive resistance by pointing toward the ways in which our particular positions within cultural narratives determine our individual perceptions of consumption-focused counterhegemonic action. Through an analysis of the fictional A&P in Updike's story, we examine how physical spaces of consumption such as grocery stores embody particular consumer capitalist ideologies and how shoppers are socialized into behaving in particular ways in such stores. We also address the issue of consumer resistance by focusing on how audiences interpret such consumptive resistance, rather than focusing solely on those resisting. These audiences include the story's protagonist, Sammy, and by extension us, both as readers of Updike's story and as viewers of various sites and acts of consumer resistance in current consumer culture. Our examination shifts the focus from the usual object of analysis-those resisting-to the audiences who, like ourselves, interpret that resistance.

Text and Performance Quarterly, 2007

Arranged as a post-structural catechism, Complicated Conversations and Confirmed Commitments: Revitalizing Education for Democracy engages readers in dialogue around curricular and pedagogical problems via a series of posed queries and responses in the form of writing and imagery from emerging and experienced educational practitioners, artists, and curriculum scholars. Rather than seeking fixed truths, however, the authors in this collection instead offer problematic, poetic, and consciously irresolute responses to contemporary educational issues, responses that respect the need for a fluid conceptualization and enactment of democracy in pluralistic, complex cultural spaces. Collectively, these authors describe the im/possibilities inherent in attempting to reconceptualize curriculum and pedagogy towards more just and humane ends.

John Updike Review (Univ. of Cincinnati), 2017

The mass-appearance of female heroes in popular culture in recent decades may encourage the opinion that the female hero has achieved the same credibility as her male counterpart. This article demonstrates, however, that she continues to generate ambivalence and that the primary reservation of most scholars is that a female hero either cannot or should not perform the masculinity of the archetype. Scholarly arguments tend towards two positions: that a female hero is an oxymoron; or that she should be limited to battles on behalf of women in which she champions feminine characteristics and challenges the belief that femininity is not heroic. Neither of these positions take archetypal heroism into account. Advocating a return to Jungian archetypal theory, I argue that the masculinity of the archetype may be as successfully performed by a female hero as by a male hero. Once this premise is accepted, the female hero should be expected to undergo the same trials and perform the same function as a male hero, in short, she should navigate the heroic monomyth outlined by Joseph Campbell. I illustrate this point through a literary analysis of Tanith Lee's 1976 fantasy novella The winter players. The hero arguably dominates popular literatures through myth, legend and fairy tale into our contemporary era of graphic novels and action movies. As a figure who answers the psychic call of his or her socio-historical context, this hero is governed by what his or her culture believes a hero should be and do; historically, western culture has favoured a male hero doing 'manly' things. For this reason, those who have sought to study the female hero have found her an elusive and difficult subject. In early texts, she appears rarely and is treated as an anomaly. More recently, however, and possibly as a result of twentieth-century feminism, she bursts forth in a multitude of images. And yet, for all her visibility in contemporary popular culture, the female hero continues to generate ambivalence among theoreticians who disagree about what she should do, how she should behave and what constitutes 'female heroism'. Generally, these points of contention spring from two overarching sources: firstly, the term 'hero' is seldom clearly defined; and, secondly, a widespread scepticism of the female hero's masculinity continues to undermine her plausibility. This scepticism surfaces in studies that valorise the female hero's performance of femininity, arguing that she should have her own 'feminine', female hero's journey that does not adhere to the monomyth (the pattern of heroic action demonstrated by the archetypal hero). This trend runs contrary to progressive developments in contemporary gender studies, which show that masculinity and femininity are performed equally across male and female bodies. It also perpetuates the divide between what is expected of male heroes and what is expected of female heroes, rather than fostering equality. In order to counter this trend, I argue that discussions of the female hero should return to the archetype and archetypal theory, which demonstrate that there should be no difference between what female and male heroes do: both should navigate the same monomyth, meet the same challenges and achieve the same outcome prescribed by the archetype. Effectively, archetypal theory allows me to argue that the sex of the hero is entirely secondary to their heroism. A return to Jungian archetypal theory is useful not only because it offers a clear definition of archetypal heroism but because, in recognising that the archetype may be represented by either sex, it challenges the gender-bias in current scholarship.

Masters of Philosophy Thesis for US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies According to the current Air Force Doctrine Document on Leadership and Force Development (AFDD 1-1, 8 November 2011), telling the Air Force story is an important leadership competency. Additionally, officers are increasingly told to consider the role of strategic narratives in military operations. Unfortunately, Professional Military Education (PME) has no coherent approach to teaching storytelling skills. This neglect reflects a larger cultural bias against storytelling that has roots in the beginning of Western civilization. Other large organizations and professions, however, have already realized the power of stories and adopted programs that integrate storytelling into leadership and management practices. Stories are especially potent tools for innovation. Thus, when General Kwast charged Air University with producing heroic innovators, the growing body of literature on narratives was a natural starting point to look for a new approach within Air Force PME. Although there are many ways to nurture storytelling skills, the use of fiction is well supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. This thesis examines the use of a science fiction novel, Ender’s Game, which has content and a structure particularly apt for the challenge of encouraging innovative airmen.

1978

An interracial team of:teacherS'" and regional consultanti worked together_reV#insthisten-syear-old book on the _ teaching of black literature. ne first section discusses black literature in terms of its discovery, tradition, and affective aspects; outlines goals and objectives for the course; presents a historical survey of black American writers; considers junior novels, short story collections, 'biographies, and, autobiographies (historical And moitern) by bot black and white writers; an0 presents supplementary bibliographies. of.black literature. The second part of .the bdok deals with classroom uses of black American 10ratUe.