Friday, May 30, 2008
defining vernacular
I've been thinking more about our discussion today about knowledge and power, and as I am formulating my thoughts on the subject, one question I have for the participants in DMAC is--What do you mean when you use the word vernacular, either in terms of the discussion this morning or in general. I'm curious what definitions people are working with.
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When I think of the use of the vernacular, I think of Dante and his determination to compose the Divine Comedy in Italian instead of Latin which would normally have been used in an epic poem. I guess I am thinking in terms of accessibility vs. power and hegemony. Italian did eventually win in that it became the language of choice for writers and poets. However, I also think of the students rights to their own voices initiatives, which didn't seem to have any sustaining effect in terms of institutional pedagogy and composition goal setting. As Beverly brought into the discussion--sometimes the vernacular is accessible but not the language of those with institutional power.
There's another interesting element in play here, at least at some institutions. I know that in my teaching I have encountered a number of students who didn't WANT to work in the vernacular, and in fact they expected me, as their composition teacher, to lead them to the proper academic voice.
You can imagine how frustrating that is for me, as a teacher, knowing that I use pop culture, gaming, and remix left and right. :)
Thanks for responding here. One of the reasons I asked this question is that in my dissertation I am looking at the ways in which culture gets labelled as "vernacular" when it gets incorporated into institutional discourses...or how ideas about the vernacular get conscripted into rhetorics of power (Forgive me, folks. I'm at the point where everything I see relates to my dissertation!) In my own research, I am exploring this question as it related to diabetes health education--particularly what counts as culturally sensitive health education.
In the case of health education, particularly those efforts based on compliance models, labels like "cultural beliefs" and "vernacular knowledge" are often approached as obstacles that get in the way of effective, treatments. The acknowledgment of the vernacular in such contexts, then, can work to reinforce existing power differentials.
Our discussion about power and the vernacular made me curious about the ways in which similar processes may (if at all) may be working in the college classroom.
I'm a registered nurse, and I would love to hear more about your dissertation project if the opportunity comes up. Sounds really interesting!
I'd be happy to! I bet you would have a helpful perspective on the topic.
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