Following One's Nose in Reading W. G. Sebald Allegorically: Currere and Invisible Subjects

• Published in: Educational theory 2017-04, Vol.67 (2), p.153-171
• Main Author: Strong‐Wilson, Teresa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allegory; Autobiographies; Curricula; Curriculum; Curriculum Research; Double consciousness; Educational Theories; Educational theory; Ethics; Learning Processes; Literary Devices; Pedagogy; Teaching Methods; Writing; Writing (Composition)
• ISSN: 0013-2004; 1741-5446
• DOI: 10.1111/edth.12232

In education, we are concerned with the teaching and learning of subjects, but the word “subject” can refer to the discipline being studied as well as the individual who is studying. In this essay, Teresa Strong‐Wilson explores this “double entendre” (which William Pinar refers to as the “double consciousness”) of curriculum studies through the analogy afforded by German author‐in‐exile W. G. Sebald's working through of difficult subjects by way of semi‐autobiographical writing that takes the form of an “invisible subject”: a preoccupation with an unnamed injustice entangled with his own upbringing. Curriculum theory, as currere, has foregrounded the autobiographical. While the place of autobiography in curriculum studies has often been taken to mean writing (especially of a confessional sort), currere is more an allegorical method of study, of intellectual engagement, of learning through reading and writing, and of teaching so as to open spaces for agency. Strong‐Wilson suggests that Sebald can provide a strong example for us in curriculum studies of how to ethically bring into being an allegorical, autobiographical practice focused on “invisible” subjects of deep concern.