By Rachel Wifall
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to team-teach a summer course with my colleague Dr. Jennifer Ayala, a social psychologist, of Saint Peter’s department of education. We chose the broad title of “Literature and Psychology” for the class and had a great time brainstorming about our course content. We first created units based on psychoanalysis, psychosocial development, “abnormal psychology,” and theories of social psychology. Then it was not difficult for me to identify literary characters who embody the science, including the bereft, paranoid, and delusional narrators of Edgar Allan Poe; Shakespeare’s diabolical Richard III, who declares, “love forswore me in my mother’s womb”; the severely dysfunctional family of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury; and Frederick Douglass’s memoir of slavery and abuse.
What especially inspired me was my colleague’s focus on the field of social psychology, including the theory of social categorization and that of moral exclusion, described by Dr. Susan Opotow as occurring “when individuals or groups are perceived as outside the boundary in which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply. Those who are morally excluded are perceived as nonentities, expendable, or undeserving. Consequently, harming or exploiting them appears to be appropriate, acceptable, or just.” At the time, we used August Strindberg’s play “Miss Julie” to illustrate the practice of social categorization by means of class distinction; since that time, I’ve identified myriad works of literature which, to me, illustrate unjust social practices and which may themselves be better understood through engagement with these psychological theories.
Eventually, I decided to focus my oft-taught introductory core course in fiction around these concepts. I subtitled the class “Geeks, Misfits and Outsiders” and organized the syllabus around the practice of moral exclusion based on race, age, gender, social and economic status, and ability. I did not want to simply hash out identity politics in this class but instead wished to encourage my students to see the humanity in all people – even of Franz Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, selfless man-turned-insect – and strive toward an appreciation of social justice. This past semester my students found that Edwidge Danticat’s novel The Farming of Bones, about the 1937 Perejil Massacre of Haitian immigrants along the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, spoke loudly to political and humanitarian concerns of today.
Perhaps because Saint Peter’s is a highly diverse university, full of minoritized and first-generation college students and because we are a Jesuit institution focused on the works of justice, my focused approach to literary fiction was well received. However, I believe that the humanity of others can be appreciated anywhere when sound psychological studies are paired with great literary works which vividly and viscerally portray the experiences of those from all walks of life (even giant bugs).
Rachel Wifall is a professor of English literature at Saint Peter’s University and has been a member of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education