Ideas for Resilience Story Analysis

This week, we transition to analyzing resilience stories. Narratives of overcoming adversity, recovering from disasters, and perseverance are ubiquitous in the culture industry, and Hollywood is no exception. Your second essay assignment in this class is to select a film and analyze it as a resilience story using the knowledge you've gleaned thus far and through additional research. You will read a portion (or all, if you want) of Susie O'Brien's scholarly essay published in the journal Resilience, titled "Resilience Stories: Narratives of Adaptation, Refusal, and Compromise." Her article engages with the growing discourse around resilience, including anti-resilience, and then uses the language of and debates about resilience as a lens through which to analyze Ishmael Beah's 2014 novel The Radiance of Tomorrow. You will participate in a discussion about resilience stories using O'Brien's article and the graphic story by Malaka Gharib about Manyang Reath Kher's near-death experience in a refugee camp in Ethiopia when he was a boy. After reviewing the prompt for the resilience story analysis essay, take a moment to reflect on your options and brainstorm with your peers in the Ideas for Resilience Story Analysis discussion.