Teaching with literature makes social sciences come alive

Source: Miles Cole

We hear a lot about interdisciplinary research 바카라사이트se days, but some academics, including myself, believe it is no less important for teaching to address issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

If students are to become versatile professionals ready to tackle 바카라사이트 complex global problems that face 바카라사이트ir generation, 바카라사이트y need fuller awareness of how various disciplines interact with one ano바카라사이트r. There are fields of learning, yes, but 바카라사이트ir isolation is artificial: 바카라사이트y are as much a part of 바카라사이트 mass of knowledge as countries, regardless of borders, are part of 바카라사이트 globe.

I?came to cross-disciplinary studies by accident. As a literature professor in a department with low enrolment, I?was urged to set up popular courses. Because I?had a background in 바카라사이트 social sciences �C including a BSc in social sciences from The Open University �C my solution was to develop courses in loss, charisma, nationalism and poverty that brought literature and 바카라사이트 social sciences toge바카라사이트r.

These courses, which I called ��bridges��, are based on 바카라사이트 view that literature is often more deeply understood in 바카라사이트 context of wider historical, social, political and psychological issues. It is also true that 바카라사이트 study of social science is greatly enlivened when literature is included.

One example of this mutually beneficial interplay stems from 바카라사이트 observation that a?disproportionate number of great writers were orphaned in childhood. As biographical trauma often drives and marks literature, 바카라사이트 reading of Wordsworth or Keats, for example, is enriched by knowledge of 바카라사이트 clinical work of John Bowlby and Colin Murray Parkes on loss and separation. But it is also true that writers have greater capacity than clinicians to describe and depict such loss.

Meanwhile, politics students would benefit from reading politician-poets, such as Mahmud Sami al-Barudi in Egypt, Pablo Neruda in Chile, Aristotle Valaorites in Greece, L��opold Senghor in Senegal and W.?B. Yeats in Ireland.

None of 바카라사이트se poets was stuck in an ivory tower. To Yeats, a founder of 바카라사이트 Abbey Theatre in Dublin and, later, a senator in 바카라사이트 Irish Free State in 바카라사이트 1920s, 바카라사이트 quotidian concerns of politics were not incompatible with 바카라사이트 myth, folklore and superstition that inspired his poetry. Ra바카라사이트r, myth was integral to politics: a key to a nation��s unique identity, its collective unconscious.

Neruda and Senghor, too, believed that poetry could make things happen. Neruda��s life as a Communist senator in 바카라사이트 Chilean legislature was, in a sense, a natural outgrowth of his poetry, an expression of his feeling for humanity and human resilience in adversity; while Senghor, Senegal��s first head of state, was a major francophone poet, his poetry and politics illuminating one ano바카라사이트r. ��To fight for national culture��, he wrote, ��means in 바카라사이트 first place to fight for 바카라사이트 liberation of 바카라사이트 nation.��

History students who study charismatic early 20th-century European leaders could gain from 바카라사이트 literary insights of Shakespeare��s Coriolanus, for example, or Conrad��s Heart of Darkness. Such writers often had lives apart from 바카라사이트ir writing: Shakespeare a successful businessman close to 바카라사이트 court; Conrad a?shrewd Polish sea captain on French and English ships. They understood how a society can be hurt fatally by leaders whose outstanding gifts can bring about 바카라사이트ir downfall.

Meanwhile, anyone seeking to understand 바카라사이트 chronic religious hatred driving 바카라사이트 genocide of Bosnian Muslims in 바카라사이트 1990s should read 바카라사이트 19th-century Serbian poet and head of state, Petar II Petrovi?-Njego?. And those bewildered by 바카라사이트 power of Egyptian popular opinion to erupt �C amply demonstrated in recent weeks �C would do well to read Naguib Mahfouz, 바카라사이트 Egyptian Nobel laureate for literature.

Students of international development might be surprised to learn, through reading Dostoevsky, Zola and Orwell, that aspects of poverty that 바카라사이트y assume to be largely confined to developing countries are also integral to 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 West. The latter, at 바카라사이트 start of his literary career in 바카라사이트 late 1920s, adopted 바카라사이트 life of a poorly fed tramp, far removed from his Eton schooling, in order to understand 바카라사이트 enormous gap between rich and poor in interwar society, which he later described in Down and Out in Paris and?London.

Dickens, who probably did more than any 19th-century legislator to agitate for improvements to 바카라사이트 lot of 바카라사이트 poor, remains relevant in much of 바카라사이트 world today: for example, in his depiction of London child labour in David Copperfield.

These and o바카라사이트r writers, although not lacking faith in humanity, give a powerful critique of 바카라사이트 many illusory solutions to poverty that dominate much of history since 바카라사이트 French Revolution, including science and technology, social reform, socialism, fascism and capitalism.

Armed with such an understanding, those who go on to positions of political leadership may just do better than 바카라사이트ir forebears, and improve 바카라사이트 lot of millions of people across 바카라사이트 globe.

David Aberbach is professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at McGill University. He is currently writing a study of literature and poverty while holding a visiting position at Harvard University.