Becoming Nancy

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To some extent I wanted students to view their outlaw emotions as an early warning system that alerts them to examine the oppressive forces that may be connected to these emotions. In Undercover, the first UK solo show by US artist Laurie Long, Impressions presents two bodies of work that fuse elements of humour, feminism and popular culture. These two recent bodies of work employ photography and video to explore childhood memory, identity, role-play and surveillance in everyday life. As we arrive, the customers outside the Admiral Duncan greet him like a beloved star. “Nancy! Nancy!” one cries.

We might even say that process theory was invented by postprocess theory in the same way that, according to Susan Miller, current-traditional theory was invented by processWelcome to the Admiral Duncan!” she booms. “It’s a Monday night! If anyone is kind enough to buy me seven tequilas I’ll down the lot during the instrumental of ‘And I’m Telling You’!” Long claims only to have dated men she actually wanted to go out with. Some agreed beforehand to let her film the date, others went on the date specifically to be filmed, some didn’t know they were being filmed. All those in the exhibition have given their consent. Although they may be aware that they are being filmed, the dates did not know where the camera was concealed. This helps to make the date less self-conscious and shifts the focus away from the camera. Before long, it seems like everybody has an opinion on whether David should go on with the show, inspiring him to turn to his no-nonsense best friend Frances and his unlikely co-star Maxie, the enigmatic captain of the football team. Becoming Nancy is the huge-hearted new musical that weaves a story of family bonds, first loves, and the courage it takes to find your own spotlight. Discounting that the student has any agency in subject formation relegates literacy to functioning only in a most dismal manner. Vygotskian scholars Dorothy Holland and William Lachicotte make room for agency in identity formation that might open up discursive spaces to new variants:

Villanueva, V. (2004). “Memoria” is a friend of ours: on the discourse of color. College English, 67(1), 9-19. They didn’t find a knife, and instead gathered up his belongings, including large amounts of electronic equipment, and left. Afterwards, he says, “I looked like the elephant man – a lot of cuts and swelling.” The golf club caused nerve damage to his leg, making walking agony. Terry Ronald’s novel Becoming Nancy is easy enough to understand. Apparent intelligent and unique Davie Starr is cast as Nancy in the school’s production of Oliver! and he discovers his sexuality with the help of handsome co-star Maxie. Maybe I have a high bar for coming of age stories, but I just viewed it as a dull superficial book. To create what might be an artificial difference from the personal narrative, I have chosen to label this type of writing assignment a critical memoir. I started with Lucy Calkins’ (1986) delineation of narrative as what happened, autobiography as when it happened, and memoir as who it happened to and how that experience represents an important theme in that person’s life. As I became more versed in postmodern subjectivity, I started to think of memoir as constructed from multiple subject positions:

Undercover

Delegates should perhaps be grateful it stops with fisting. In one video online, from a stand-up gig, Nancy Clench seeks to enlighten the audience about the terminology for when a straight man uses a foot for penetration, “wading in the sea”, compared with when a gay man does: “wading in the mud”.

Then there’s the odd insertion — and repeated return cameos — by actors as Sting, Debbie Harry, Gladys Knight and Kate Bush, which add little to the show when they’re not simply annoying. My revision of the personal narrative assignment derives from an eclectic mix of Russian cognitive psychology and critical theory. As a first generation college student, I cannot avoid thinking about students’ motives for enrolling in college courses. Most enroll in degree programs to make a change in identity, be it from local high school student to a more cosmopolitan college student, from one career to another, or more hopefully from one economic stratum to another. In his textbook about educational psychology for teachers, Vygotsky’s last subheading in the last chapter is entitled “Life as Creation”(1997). Vygotsky argues for a type of subject formation that is a social process throughout one’s lifetime that requires active participation it its creation. Thus, it is no surprise that for Vygotsky, self-regulation is about the development of metacognitive thinking versus controlling discrete behaviors. Self-regulation is about self-formation and becoming the person one wants to be within a given social milieu. Certainly, enrolling in college can be an act of agency to change one’s circumstances that implicates identity formation as a context for inquiry, reflection, and revision through writing. Jensen, B. (1997, June). Becoming versus belonging: Psychology, speech, and social class. Paper presented at the Youngstown Working Class Studies Conference, Youngstown, OH. Retrieved from http://www.classmatters.org/2004_04/becoming_vs_belonging.php The musical would be part of his new Jerry Mitchell Productions company that he has formed in association with Ambassador Theatre Group.

I assigned a series of brainstorming prompts that first required students to itemize a wide range of literacy experiences throughout their lives both inside and outside of school. The prompts continued with questions about more complex functions of literacy for purposes of escape, friendship, entertainment, peace-making, status, curiosity, and rebellion against authority. Students were to note themes in their development as well as how literacy functioned for their families, friends, and multiple identity groups. Finally, students considered conflicts related to their literacy, including occasions when they were intentionally silent, refused to communicate, or chose not to become literate about something for a strong reason. Students also responded to other working-class academic memoirs from Dews and Law’s This Fine Place So Far From Home (1995). From the prompts and journaling students developed two ideas, drafted, and revised a literacy memoir about experiences that varied from childhood through adulthood. One student’s powerful memoir related the experience of being betrayed by a hate-filled, adolescent diary entry when it was discovered by an abusive stepfather.