Aesthetic Wreck - Diving

“Outlaw Emotions” as Curriculum

Abstract

Positioning the embodied as a legitimate knowledge source, this paper frames outlaw emotions as informative curricula for aesthetically understanding the self. Acknowledging the power in feminist poetry as linguistic and allegorical rejection of patriarchy and broad social exclusion, I utilize Adrienne Rich’s (1973) poem “Diving into the Wreck” as both anchoring organizational tool and feminist allegorical gateway into exploring integral outlaw emotion-information stemming from anger and rage, gendered emotions often framed as unwelcome. However, an aesthetic “pedagogy of discomfort” invites students to explore their settled emotion-myths as instructive, luminous opportunities to explore the intersections between education, the self, and feeling rules governing outlaw emotions in educational and social spaces.