The subtext of literature in English for the high school classroom

Abstract

This study endeavoured to refine and broaden the academic conceptualisation of the subtext in classroom literature and to address the dearth of literature on empirical field studies pertaining to the subtext of literature in English for the classroom in Zimbabwe. The subtext is conceptualised in this study as the literary elements in the prescribed text, The Uncertainty of Hope (2006), that become subtextual as soon as they elicit a personal, collective, emotional and psychological response from the reader. The subtext in literature is crucial as its latent themes influence the manner in which stereotypical images are transferred to and perceived by learners and teachers in the classroom. However, existent research has focused on desk analyses of isolated themes in selected texts and, therefore, learners and teachers’ perceptions of subtextual themes have remained a neglected area. Thus, this study breaks new ground through this field study. The units of analysis include Advanced level (Grade 12) Literature in English learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of and responses to one of the prescribed literary texts in Zimbabwe, The Uncertainty of Hope (2006), a novella written by Valerie Tagwira. The study was conducted in the Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe, as an exploratory single case study design, which enabled me to conduct an in-depth study of the subtext of literature in English for the classroom. The participants were teachers and learners from the Groove High School, Advanced Level class of 2018-2019. The following research questions were asked to expand the knowledge and understanding of learners and teachers’ perceptions of subtextual themes of the text: What subtextual themes do the learners and teachers derive from the prescribed text?; What individual experiences shape the learners and teachers’ perceptions of the prescribed text?; and What shared/common experiences shape the learners and teachers’ perceptions of the prescribed text? Data were analysed through an eclectic theoretical framework that comprises of literary theories (postcolonialism and psychoanalysis), reading and learner-centred theories and approaches (Constructivism, Rosenblatt’s Transactional Reader-Response theory, Reader-Response approach) and African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK). The methodological approach comprised a fusion of participatory art-based methodologies in the form of learners’ individually crafted poems and the drawing of symbols, which were based on the written poems (poem-drawings), and conventional qualitative methodologies (semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis). My main finding in this study was that in the Zimbabwean context, the Hunhu/Ubuntu practice – the capacity in an African context to expresses interconnectedness, common humanity and communal responsibility (Nussbaum, 2003) – is diminishing in the economy and in society in general because of the over-emphasis on individualism, but Hunhu/Ubuntu was present in the learners’ and teachers’ intergenerational experiencing of the set-text and of literature in general. My unique contribution is that this study has revealed that the studying of literature represents an intergenerational experience. Crucially, learners and teachers are living human bodies that are connected to a literary body, which is the set-text to which they responded. Literature does not only provide access to language, but also to the experiencing of intergenerational memory that is closely influenced by the environment. Therefore, it is recommended in this study that it is imperative for classroom practice to engage methods and strategies of literary analysis that evoke learners and teachers’ individual and collective memories. NOTE: In Zimbabwe, Literature in English is studied as a separate school subject, which is distinguished from English Language. Throughout the study, a capital ‘L’ will be used to designate the school subject Literature/ Literature in English. A lower case ‘l’ will be used to refer to literary texts and to literature in general. Key words: Subtext, constructivism, art-based methods, intergenerational memory, trauma, literary body, collective unconscious, triggers.