Putting Our Affective House in Order: Toward Solidarity Rather than Shame in Departments of English

Abstract

In True Confessions: Uncovering Hidden Culture of Shame in English Studies, J. Brooks Bouson captures frustration many of us feel with competitive and community-breaking shame culture that operates in field of English studies. Deploying Gershen Kaufman's work on shame, Bouson notes that American culture is a hidden, but virulent shame-based culture where the intense focus on competition and success leads to a pervasive fear of failure (626). According to Bouson, shame in academic settings can act as 'the dark twin of our intellectual pride. Many of us carry psychic from scholarly battles and professional slights, and we exercise potential to inflict such wounds upon our colleagues. I appreciate Bouson's thoughtful exploration of shame, especially focus on emotional costs of shame experi enced by those who have endured scholarly attacks at academic conferences, those who have undergone shame-based anxieties