“Tender Narrations”: Humanities Education in Times of Crisis
In her 2018 Nobel Prize lecture, Olga Tokarczuk emphasizes the “massive significance” of storytelling as a means to “perceive the similarities and sameness” among people. “It is a way of looking,” she says, “that shows the world as […] interconnected.” This principle of connection defines for us the value of Humanities education, especially now with social isolation and political fracture so prevalent. The past two years have seen undergraduates experience disruption or witness one catastrophe after another. Even in calmer times, incoming students often lack the means to describe their feelings while negotiating new academic and social experiences. COVID-enforced isolation has exacerbated this problem as social media often offers only superficial forms of expression. Students’ vocabularies—the words, images, and ideas they use—are shrinking. The polemic extremes of our political discourse has narrowed conversation even further. As part of the discussion of the role Humanities education, especially core curricula, has in university studies, this paper focuses on how storytelling (and attentive, compassionate listening) can help students find their own voice while also acknowledging the perspectives and experiences of others. We discuss our efforts in engaging our students, in helping them express themselves and participate in important post-COVID societal conversations.
