TMA 3: ‘All literacy practices contain creative elements.’ Discuss, using examples of texts that might not be traditionally considered creative illustrating your explanations with ideas and theories from Part 1 of the module. (2000 words)
Standing in a shady corner of the playground of Tuol Sleng High School in Phnom Penh there is sign in English listing ten rules. These are not school rules, however, but regulations dictating the behaviour of concentration camp prisoners. Tuol Sleng High School was turned into the infamous S21 Prison used by the Khmer Rouge regime to torture and extract confessions from suspected dissidents, and the rules were allegedly explained to all prisoners when entering the camp. In this essay I wish to analyse the different factors at work in the creation and reception of this, now iconic, piece of English. I will argue that within the literacy practice of constructing and displaying these regulations there has been a high degree of creativity, and in order to truly understand the significance of this piece of English it is essential to understand the potential creators and well as the intended audience. By doing so I hope to show how the process of making meaning in any literacy practice, even when that practice is ostensibly purely (and brutally) functional, has creativity at is core, and that how the example of the S21 regulation sign was subject to multi-layered created forces. The ten regulations and an photograph of the original hand-painted sign in English are included as appendices and I will be referring to them throughout this essay. With regard to the meanings of ‘literacy practices’ and ‘creativity’ I will be interpreting these in light of Papen and Tusting’s definitions (in Maybin and Swann 2006) as firstly, ‘…literacy practices – the ways people use and interact with texts in particular contexts, and the meaning that these hold for them. (p312) and, ”creativity’ refers to ‘making something which is new, which did not exist before the creative act” (p314).
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I hope to expose the inherent creativity that is locked within the literacy practice of writing the S21 regulation sign by testing it against some of the theories from the course materials, principally the four factors that demonstrate creativity in written language outlined on pages 330-331 of Maybin and Swann (2006): focus on practices rather than solely on the text; collaboration and interaction rather than individual enterprise; the possibilities and constraints that shape creativity; ‘sociocultural forces and changing discourses’ (p331) that mould written language. By analysing the textual and contextual construction of the S21 sign against these ideas and others I will argue that its writing was highly creative and its final production was the result of creative forces bearing heavily upon the literacy practices of the meaning-makers.
Papen and Tusting (2008) argue persuasively that creativity can only be identified in written language if we are prepared to look beyond the text itself to the practice that led to its production. They move away from, therefore, an inherency model of textual analysis as described by Joanna Swann (in Maybin and Swann 2006 p.10) where the creativity can be identified by looking at the lexical construction of the writing and evaluated through it. Their approach can be broadly viewed as a mixture of the sociocultural and the cognitive models of analysis where the external or contextual factors affecting the writing, and the mental processes affecting the producer and the audience are of more importance in inferring meaning and therefore creativity. But of more importance to the S21 regulations they state that allowing these creative practices to take analytical precedence over the text we become aware that, ‘These practices are patterned by social structures, institutions and power relationships’ (Papen and Tusting 2008 p.1)
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creativity gets hampered by constraints some say some say constraints help u become more creative. the debate is open. but then when its a debate, it has to be open otherwise how can one say that its a debate? debate is debate is a debate. anyways talking about creativity, there is always a conflict of method and intution. the conflict is in the process of creating something new, and ...
This is why, in my opinion the study of the S21 sign is so interesting; the sociocultural factors affecting the literacy practices in its production were so powerful and so unique that it had to have become an extremely creative piece of text. This creativity is amplified when we consider, as best we can, the mental and psychological state of the meaning-makers involved in its production and reception. This idea is supported by Anita Wilson’s study of literacy practices among prisoners and the resultant creativity which promotes, ‘the notion that creativity can emerge from a position of powerlessness and can utilise anguish and struggle for its inspiration,’ even in,’ an environment as surprised and controlled as a prison’ (in Maybin and Swann 2006 pp.340-341).
Wilson’s subject matter differs in that the literacy practices she analysed were created by the prisoners themselves rather than the prison authorities, but for me, the regulations of S21 are interesting in the very fact that they seem to provide barren ground to sow seeds of creative, yet creativity has flourished.
So what were these contextual forces at work upon the S21 sign? There is not space to discuss at length the Khmer Rouge regime and its ethos in depth, but very briefly it was founded upon ultra-Marxist principles and one of the most startling policies introduced was that of the complete destruction of the educated middle class. The urban population of Phnom Penh was forcibly repatriated to the countryside to assume new lives as landless peasantry working collectively for the state. Many would be processed through the gates of S21 if suspected of being the slightest threat to the ideological integrity of the regime. We therefore know that the prisoners would have been able to read, unlike most of the rural population of Cambodia in the 1970s. We can imagine that they would have been extremely disoriented and distressed by the time they were in a position to read, or have read to them, the sign in the playground. The writer’s identity cannot be known (a topic I will return to below) but the regulations were more likely to be a collaborative effort to instil a sense of discipline and obedience and promote terror. With this contextual background we can begin to think about literacy practices.
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The original sign was hand-written in black paint underneath its Cambodian version, both of which are on a whiteboard. There is something oddly childish in its physical production, which affects its semiotic meaning. The literacy practice of physically writing the sign was determined by what was available to the writers on-site, and these materials were possibly taken from the art department. As Papen and Tusting (2008) point out, ‘Any given contexts associated with a particular set of possibilities’ ([Maybin and Swann] p328), and with possibilities must also come constraints. The choice of materials and the presumably improvised nature of the S21 project (weeks before S21 Prison had been Tuol Sleng High School) were dictated to the writers and the semiotic meaning of the physical production partially outside their control.
We have the collision of two worlds here, both impacting upon the meaning-makers of the sign. On one hand there is the desire by the authorities to ‘frame’ their language to function in a certain context. When discussing this notion of language framing Jolanta Aritz says it is, ‘used to study how language makes and breaks relationships, constructs our realities by shaping who we are, and most importantly, by identifying who holds power and how power gets attributed, constructed and reenacted’ (Aritz 2012 p95).
On the other there is physical, familiar environment of the school playground and the innocence of using paints to write school-rules. Arguably these two factors have impacted upon the sign where the writer addresses the reader directly using the impersonal, yet unsettlingly intimate, ‘you’ where the passive voice would seem more appropriate. Behind the brutality of the threats of torture there is an imploring quality to the voice, preempting the objections of the prisoners in the interaction to take place.
When Kenkmann discusses the ‘Foulcauldian’ notion of ‘power as part of every discourse,’ which is, ‘free flowing and dispersed and a productive force, which shapes our selves and our relations’ (2011 p281) we can begin to hear the uncertainty in the imploring voice of the S21 sign. This is a power newly acquired and dubiously justified, bolstered not by moral right but the primal fear of pain and death. These cognitive forces playing upon the meaning makers led the sign to be written as a kind of bizarre discourse where questions are answered before they asked, tears are chastised before they are shed and lies exposed before they are told. Papen and Tusting also turn to Foucault to explain the role of the self in literacy and creativity, as we cannot separate the self from any literacy practice, and find that, ‘we as individuals are constituted by powerful societal discourses that work to confine our individual selves and the way we act and think’ (in Maybin and Swann p322) The S21 sign is a startlingly clear example of these ideas where the meaning-makers on all sides of the discourse are struggling through the creativity of the language to find themselves in this power structure.
The Report on ‘All Literacy Practices Contain Creative Elements.’
E301 – The Art of English TMA 03 ‘All literacy practices contain creative elements.’ Discuss, using examples of texts that might not be traditionally considered creative and illustrating your explanations with ideas and theories from Part 1 of the module. The following essay will work from the idea that creative elements are present in all forms of literary practices of everyday life. The ...
There is also clear evidence of Bakhtin’s concepts of creativity in literacy practice outlined by Janet Maybin (2006 pp.419-420), and I would like to quickly explore these to further support my central argument. This discourse between the guards and prisoners begun in the direct address of the sign proves Bakhtin’s idea of ‘dialogicality’ in language. This is two way process, with the reader/listener’s reaction constructing the literacy practices much as the writer/speaker’s objective. His theory of ‘speech genres’ is supported by the juxtaposition of school rules and prison regulations; the preconceptions of the meaning-makers about what they should infer and understand through the S21 sign shaped by their notions of what such a sign should be, while shaped too by the possibilities and constraints of the environment, sociocultural forces and cognitive influences. The ‘evaluative’ concept runs right through the sign, with the writer/speaker at all times justifying the affirming the meaning sought. Finally we can also identify ‘heteroglossia’ in the many-voiced nature of the message. Here we see an attempt to adopt a voice of authority and moral and political superiority, and yet are presented with a slightly confused mixture of threat, intimidation and pleading. As already mentioned the passive is discarded in favour of the more personal active, and contractions (don’t) are used when inappropriate for register. The prisoner is addressed and ‘fool’ and ‘chap’ jabbering about ‘this and that’, and we are aware of more than one ‘voice’ at work here; one of the regime and the other of a human being, unsure of their self and the power role being played.
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This can also be related to Bakhtin’s idea of centripetal and centrifugal forces in literacy practice. The centripetal forces dictate that the language must be unitary, dominant and recognisable as authoritative; the centrifugal allow the ‘bleeding-in’ of these conversational and even quaint turns of phrase. Papen mentions this when talking about literacy practices in Namibia where second language is appropriated creatively: ‘Using language creatively, indeed, often means reinventing or re-appropriating older forms (in Maybin and Swann p350).
This leads on to the final but important point I would like to make; that of second language use, translation and the veracity of the regulations themselves.
The prison commander of Tuol Sleng, Duch has recently claimed (Cheang 2009) that the sign at S21 was a fabrication by invading Vietnamese troops after they overthrew the Khmer Rouge, in a attempt to vilify and demonise the Cambodian regime. It may now be impossible to ever know if they were written under Khmer Rouge orders or were anti-Cambodian propaganda, and for the purposes of this essay it makes little difference. However, it does throw up fascinating questions about literary practice and creativity as if Duch is telling the truth then the parameters of the literacy practice change dramatically: who the meaning-makers are and were; their inter-relationships; their first languages; their objectives; their inherency, sociocultural and cognitive models of interpretation.
None of that, however, alters the matrix of analysis I have tried to impose on the S21 sign – it simply produces another fascinating layer of depth to a piece of written English, that has been shaped by its literacy practice and enormous contextual forces to result in a battered, evocative, emotive and highly creative example of English language.
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References
Aritz, J. (2012) Book review: ThePower of Framing: Creating the Language of Leadership, Journal of Business Communication, Volume 49, No. 1, January 2012 pp.95-100
Cheang, S (2009) ‘Cambodian genocide defendant says infamous sign detailing prison regulations a fabrication’, Gaea News Network, Monday, April 27. Accessed: http://news.gaeatimes.com/cambodian-genocide-defendant-says-infamous-sign-detailing-prison-regulations-a-fabrication-40683/
Kenkmann, A. (2011) ‘Power and Authenticity: Moving from classroom to the museum’, Adult Education Quarterly, Volume 61, No. 3, pp. 279-295
Maybin, J. and Swann, J. (eds.) (2006) The art of English: everyday creativity, Palgrave Macmillan in association with the Open University, Milton Keynes.
Papen, U. and Tusting, K. (2008) Creativity in everyday literacy practices : the contribution of an ethnographic approach. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, 16 (1).
pp. 5-25.
