Teaching the Landscape of Terror: How to Prepare Students for Disturbing Texts

Abstract

In the context of international armed conflict and human rights infringements, students are increasingly faced with violence in media and written text. Is it beneficial to view violence in film or to read about it in fiction or does the vicarious experience of violence lead to aggressive behavior in the responders? Drama theory suggests the cleansing impact of violence and heroism on stage (catharsis) whereas communication scholars today point to the negative perspective. To date, there is extensive research on the impact of violence on television on both children and adults, but less is available on violence and the post-COVID world, especially on the war scenes from the Ukraine and how students understand trauma when they are often within a landscape of terror. In the past, students in a literature class might find themselves viewing Art Spiegelman’s graphic two volume novel, Maus, but that horrific depiction of the Holocaust in cartoons is not permitted in some American schools today. Although many educators continue to think that reading or viewing stories distracts students from dealing with their real-life experiences, the opposite is likely true. Stories allow us to confront situations in a controlled environment that would otherwise be unapproachable. Within stories are moral lessons that can shape students’ experience. The purpose of this research is to explore strategies that would help students deal with responses, both emotional and analytic, to the mediated and written versions of traumatic events. Text based analysis will focus on intergenerational trauma in Michelle Good’s prize-winning novel (2020) Five Little Indians. Preliminary interviews with students indicate fears around social media, dark aspects of the web, and ugly human/animal/machine representations.