“Listening to the Affective Life of Injustice”: Drama Pedagogy, Race, Identity, and Learning

Abstract

This article draws from three different ethnographic research projects situated in Canadian urban and suburban drama classrooms in which the student population is highly diverse linguistically, culturally, racially, and ethnically. In each of these classes, as students engage in discussion in and out of role, some of the unsettling events of their lives concerned with the “affective politics” of race come to light. We critique notions of consensus and demonstrate, through our examples, the central importance of the drama classroom space as one that ignites discussion and engages divergent opinions and feelings. To analyze these events, we draw upon Frantz Fanon and Sara Ahmed who acknowledge how different bodies experience the power relations associated with emotion differently.