ThinkOlio Fridays: Being One of Them and Being Who You Are
Each Friday ThinkOlio presents an in-depth discussion on a topic of current socio-political significance here at Strand. On January 27, 2017 we explore Being One of Them and Being Who You Are: The Immigrant’s Search for an Authentic Self with Patricia Kim. Keep your mind engaged with this study guide including reading materials and video from this one of many classes.
About the Class
Science fiction allows us the room to imagine what it looks like when alien races come up against one another and, namely, our human race. The genre’s power is in the ability to cloak our human frailties, ugliness, triumphs, and beauty in an alien package for audiences to open and revel in, grapple with. Little are we necessarily conscious of how thin and permeable the membrane between fiction and reality actually is.
We will look at the Borg of Star Trek lore and seek to identify their ultimate goal of assimilation with the sort of assimilation that occurs in the everyday lives of immigrant communities and communities of color. What happens when you live multiple lives in order to survive? Who is your authentic self? And when your outer identity — namely race — is assimilated by the culture at large, what are the consequences of your inner identity’s mismatch?
Clare Kendry is Nella Larsen’s embodiment of how explosive these consequences can be in her novel, Passing. We will look at Clare as another fictional example and talk about mental health concerns regarding the very real and ongoing struggle between being one of them and being who you are. It is imperative to have a conversation acknowledging racial division and colorism in order to explain fully why not all people have have these divisive experiences and more importantly, to understand why these experiences exist.
Patricia Kim received her MFA from Columbia University and has been teaching College Composition and Literature classes at Baruch College and around NY while completing a novel. Her experience working with disadvantaged youth at the college level inspired her to pursue an MSW at Columbia.
Reading List
Passing, Nella Larsen
Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life In a Northern City, St. Clair Drake & Horace R. Cayton
Countee Cullen, Collected Poems
Utopia, Thomas More
The Complete Essays, Michel de Montaigne
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
The Analects, Confucius
Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History, Erik H. Erikson
Nobody Knows My Name, James Baldwin
Watch past lectures here and don’t miss the next class! ThinkOlio will take over the Strand Rare Book Room every Friday! Go here to see a full list of upcoming topics.
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