A Work of Critical Fiction

            *Trigger Warning: The short story linked in this post contains references of physical violence, rape, and torture.

Throughout her chapter entitled Narratives of Struggle, Bell Hooks explains the meaning and importance of critical fiction. From what I understand, critical fictions are unconventional, fictional works that entice the reader to use their imagination while they also demand that the reader empathize with and think critically about the experiences of an oppressed people. These works tend to challenge ways of writing and ideas that are consistent with the dominant (white, hetero, male, middle class, etc.) society.

            One literary work that I believe fits into the category of critical fiction is “Krik? Krak!”, a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors, Edwidge Danticat. It has been nearly a year since I’ve read this work and I have no time to reread it at the moment, so I will focus on one particular story in this book that I think does a good job of covering a lot of the main themes and of representing critical fiction. This short story is entitled, Epilogue: Women Like Us.

            “Krik? Krak!” is a collection of stories about the lives of different Haitians. The short story, Woman Like Us, is a narrative in second-person point-of-view that talks about a woman’s experiences of growing up and the expectations placed upon her. It talks a lot about how she was expected to be able to cook, clean and braid her hair well. She was expected not to speak, embrace her sexuality, or write. The end of the story demonstrates her resistance to these expectations when it says that she wrote down and memorized her female ancestors’ names, so they would continue to live on. This short story is broadly about gender norms and the expectations that women can only do certain things and act a certain way, specifically looking at Haitian culture.

            I believe that Women Like Us. is a strong example of critical fiction. It is a vibrant fictional story that is written in a way that allows readers to use their imagination to create a picture of what Danticat is explaining. This short story encourages readers to think critically about society’s expectations of women. Danticat challenges the dominant culture by writing about a strong female character – who comes from a long line of strong women – who resists the expectations placed on her. It encourages readers to build empathy for women. At one point in Bell Hooks’ chapter, she mentions that “… revolutionary critical fictions prophetically construct and name the transformed future” (page 60), which Danticat does at the end of this short story when she shows the main character’s mother telling her to write down and memorize the names of the strong women who have come before her; as readers, we can assume that the main character will continue this tradition in the future if she ever has children.

            I would love to use this short story in my own classroom for several reasons. First, it is by one of my favorite authors and I love it. More importantly, though, it would prompt students to build empathy, make connections across different works and cultures, and learn by example how to resist the dominant culture and society. This would also be a convenient text to use because it is quite short and fairly accessible, yet well written. I would use this piece to facilitate conversations about gender (obviously), but also about the intersectionality between the main character’s gender identity and racial and ethnical identities. This work would fit well under units on fiction, short stories, or imagery. I’m sure there are plenty of other units I could fit this piece into, but those are just a few ideas.

            As I think about using critical fiction texts in my classroom, I am becoming excited. This graduate program has encouraged us to think about how to diversify the texts we use in our classrooms, but I have found it difficult to think about texts that broaden students views outside of the views found in texts by old white men without choosing texts just because they are written by people outside of the dominant culture. I feel as if this chapter by Bell Hooks, as well as a couple of other texts, has given me a new way to think about how to choose texts. Specifically, I now will be more focused on choosing texts that purposely resist the dominant culture.

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My Multi-Modal Project (1.0)

            For my multi-modal piece I decided to make a graphic novel detailing a few events that fall under four different sections of my identity. I covered how my race, religion, gender, and nationality affect how I think and move through the world.

            When we were first given this assignment for this class, many people seemed to be relieved that we had the opportunity to reuse something we’ve created for a similar assignment we had for our Classes, Schools, and Communities class. I, however, saw it as an opportunity to redo the assignment. The first time we did this assignment, I made a slideshow with pictures and conducted a presentation. While I was able to demonstrate my beliefs and facets of my identity, I did not feel like the format of my product was me enough. This time around, I decided to utilize some of my personal interests – drawing and storytelling – to show parts of who I am.

            I enjoyed the process of constructing this piece. I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to cover all of the different pieces of identity that were listed on our assignment sheet, so I started by choosing the four sections that stand out the most for me in my life. Then, I thought of two times these sections have made a difference for me and drew a picture for each event. I was calmed and satisfied by the freedom to express myself through drawings, but this process was also a little emotional as I waded through some tough or challenging memories to find a few to put on the page.

            As I created this piece, I decided to name it “A Snapshot of My Identity”. This decision came from the fact that while each page covers a deeply personal and real part of my identity, because of time limits versus the amount of work required for each page, I was only able to cover a tiny part of my identity. Even within each category, I was only able to cover a little bit of huge parts of my life. I was able to cover some of the big events or feelings that have been brought up throughout my life, but there are countless silences that just could not be touched while using this format.

            My two classmates who viewed my graphic novel asked about a couple of the silences within it. One of their points in particular that I found to be interesting had to do with the final section of the graphic novel, which covered my feelings of nationality. The basis of these pages were that as a child, I blindly believed that the U.S.A. was the greatest country in the world because that’s what I was told by the adults around me, but the older I get, the more and more I realize all of the problems this country has. One of my classmates asked if I held any pride in my country, and where that pride might lie. This question has stuck with me this whole week. I know that I feel pride in parts of my country, but it is so much harder to pick out the good things, especially when we live in a time where blatantly ignorant and hateful people are at the wheel, and so many people are fearing for their lives. After pondering this question for a long time, I’ve come to the basic idea that while our government generally disgusts me, I do find pride in what some of the average citizens of America are pushing for. Maybe it is just because I am living in a city (rather than the tiny rural town I come from), but I am noticing more and more people pushing for basic human rights and equity for all, people holding each other’s hands and giving assistance to those in need, people coming together to fight the hate. I know there really are great things about this country, but this is the one thing I am clinging to for pride in the U.S.A.

            Moving forward with this piece, I’m not sure if I will continue with the graphic novel format. While this has been a great process for me, I feel I cannot get enough of my story out with just a few pages. I’m not really sure what I will try next, but I hope to uncover some of the silences within the next version of this project.

            As for my resource for this week, I decided to choose a video that is both relevant to my struggles with finding pride for my country as well as to current events. The internet has blown up with a recent Nike ad featuring NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, stating "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. This ad has made a big splash because Kaepernick was one of the first NFL players to kneel during the national anthem in protest of injustices in this country, such as police brutality. I've decided to link this post-game interview with Kaepernick, where he explains his decision to kneel and protest for those who don't have as much of a voice in our society.