Classroom Talk
Spring - Summer 2002 Archive
Re: No more Mr. Nice Guy . . . coming soon! ;-) Posted by Douglas on April 30, 2002 at 09:47:20:
In Reply to: No more Mr. Nice Guy . . . coming soon! ;-) posted by John on April 29, 2002 at 21:17:48:
Coach:
The following is an intriguing idea:
“Douglas (hairpins on the bedpost), you could do a great job with this written assignment, too, if you cared to do so. What about a
phenomenological scene in a play, described in the moves of the actors about the stage and what the audience sees, with rather
little dialogue?”
Although, the notion of a play does give me pause.
Let me explain.
During the years that I practiced and preached Theatre Production, Technology, and Design, I was offered but one acting role —
that of a dead body. Being offered such a role does wonders for one’s self confidence.
In other words, the dramatic may not be my forte´.
Towards the serious, the second item that gives me pause is the word “phenomenological”. It is not that I am unfamiliar with the
works of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, Sartre, and a parade of other authors on the subject yet, I have serious doubts that
if one put them into a room that they could agree on a definition. Perhaps you should define the term in your own words.
(By the by, for quite some time now I have been struck by the similarities between Husserl’s concept of “Phenomenological
Reduction” and the teaching in this Classroom.)
My own internal Dictionary is informed by the words of R. D. Laing — for he seems both clear and lucid on the subject — when he
wrote the following:
“Social phenomenology is the science of my own and of other’s experience. It is concerned with the relation between my experience
of you and your experience of me. That is, with interexperience. It is concerned with your behaviour and my behaviour as I
experience it, and your and my behaviour as you experience it.”
“Since your and their experience is invisible to me as mine is to you and them, I seek to make evident to the others, through their
experience of my behaviour, what I infer of your experience, through my experience of your behaviour.”
“This is the crux of social phenomenology.”
Does that hit the mark?
Douglas
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