Difficult histories and the ‘problem’ of sentimentality: a case study in an Argentinian university

ABSTRACT

In this article we address the problem of sentimentality in teaching and learning difficult histories in higher education. While sentimentality has been widely theorised, empirical research is scarce. Here we contribute an empirical investigation describing how university students in an Argentinian setting engaged with histories of loss, death, and suffering through specific pedagogical activities in ways that minimised the risks of ‘empty sentimentality’. These tasks fostered students’ use of linguistic and non-linguistic (artistic, semiotic) means of meaning-making in connection with difficult histories and enabled deeper emotional engagement. The study shows that the creation of critical affective spaces in the classroom cultivated students’ responsibility for engaging in transformative action. We suggest that educators need to explicitly challenge the often moralising and self-indulgent character of teaching and learning difficult histories, as this character is constitutive of the very sentimentality with which pedagogical practice is so frequently charged.

KEYWORDS:

• Sentimentality
• difficult histories
• higher education
• historical narratives
• transformative action
• pedagogy
• emotion/affect
• higher education

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights. Porto is grateful to Amanda Zamuner and Ana Virginia Miguel for the collaborative work done in the classroom using Maus as a literary resource.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Complete Maus. A Survivor’s Tale tells the true story of Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences during World War II, as told by his son, Artie. It is an illustrated story in which Vladek, the main character, describes the horrors he faced as a Jewish person during World War II. It combines his story with Artie’s perspectives and feelings as the son of a concentration camp survivor. It took Art Spiegelman decades to produce the graphic novel, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. It first appeared as a serialised strip in Raw magazine. There are two parts. Part I, My Father Bleeds History (1986), is a heart-breaking account of the feelings of losing a loved one to suicide. Part II, And Here My Troubles Began (1992), concentrates on the father-son relationship and the account of Vladek’s life during WWII and after it (Zamuner 2019).

2. Other literary works (novels, short stories and films) were used by the authors in the same context. For instance, The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 1925), The Bell Jar (Plath 1963), Sula (Morrison 2004), The Displaced Person (O’Connor), Harrison Bergeron (Vonnegut), A Drink in the Passage (Paton), Cry Freedom (1987) and 12 Years a Slave (2013) (Porto and Sauer Rosas 2017; Porto, Zamuner and Miguel 2019; Porto and Zembylas 2020b).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CONICET (National Research Council) [H922 and PIP0281].