Resistance on Aisle Three?: Exploring the Big Curriculum of Consumption and the (Im)Possibility of Resistance in John Updike's "A&P"

Autor/inn/en	Stearns, Jennie; Sandlin, Jennifer A.; Burdick, Jake
Titel	Resistance on Aisle Three?: Exploring the Big Curriculum of Consumption and the (Im)Possibility of Resistance in John Updike's "A&P"
Quelle	In: Curriculum Inquiry, 41 (2011) 3, S.394-415 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0362-6784
DOI	10.1111/j.1467-873X.2011.00553.x
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Ideology; Educational Practices; Consumer Education; Fiction; Physical Environment; Resistance (Psychology); Retailing; Social Systems; Audiences; Reader Response; Curriculum; Commercialization + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ideologie; Bildungspraxis; Konsumerziehung; Fiktion; Natürliche Umwelt; Resistenz; Warenwirtschaft; Social system; Soziales System; Spectator; Zuschauer; Leserbrief; Curricula; Lehrplan; Rahmenplan
Abstract	In this article, we examine John Updike's short story "A&P" and its depiction of the grocery store as a curricular space re/presenting consumption and resistance to it. We position Updike's fictional A&P as a space where the "big curriculum" (Schubert, 2006a) of consumption is enacted in everyday life and explore both how the curriculum of consumption works and how resistance to consumerism might operate. We argue that this story provides insight into how consumption works as educational practice--one that teaches us how to be consumers, how to operate within consumer capitalism, and how to accept consumerism as natural--and also raises more specific questions about consumptive resistance by pointing toward the ways in which our particular positions within cultural narratives determine our individual perceptions of consumption"focused counterhegemonic action. Through an analysis of the fictional A&P in Updike's story, we examine how physical spaces of consumption such as grocery stores embody particular consumer capitalist ideologies and how shoppers are socialized into behaving in particular ways in such stores. We also address the issue of consumer resistance by focusing on how audiences "interpret" such consumptive resistance, rather than focusing solely on those resisting. These audiences include the story's protagonist, Sammy, and by extension us, both as readers of Updike's story and as viewers of various sites and acts of consumer resistance in current consumer culture. Our examination shifts the focus from the usual object of analysis--those resisting--to the audiences who, like ourselves, interpret that resistance. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10