When I took a course in teaching writing at OISE, I was introduced to the idea of voice, particularly through the writings of Donald Graves and Peter Elbow. Both Graves and Elbow define voice as the kind of presence of a person's felt identity in writing--something that I find difficult to grasp and articulate. Voice is something that often eludes one's grasp because it doesn't get 'taught' in the same way as grammatical rules are taught. More so, and quite contrarily, voice often comes out the strongest when teachers are not drawing too much attention to the mechanics of writing, but are more attentive to the sincerity of the writing, or how much it truly speaks from one's own heart and voice. Style is definitely one aspect behind voice, but I think that topic choice can also be another aspect. Children's ability to choose topics that are meaningful to them and their experiences seems to be a good way to garner the quality of uniqueness in voice.
Does sincerity of voice truly matter in spiritual life, one might ask? Does it matter whether one is truly and authentically 'oneself' when all selves are somewhat illusory? I think that the answer to this is in the way the self is treated. Children often say things with complete abandon and barely any sense of compunction, mainly because they often haven't yet been socialized or conditioned to behave in acceptable ways. I think that voice has not so much to do with 'authentic' identity as it does with a way of being that isn't attached to any particular rule, opinion or view of the self. It just sort of 'is', and it comes out in short bursts of clarity and calm. Can it be induced? Sometimes yes, but more often than not, a person needs to go through a process where they cut away their sense of who they 'should' be in favor of something that is more dynamic and responsive to the needs of the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment