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Touching Affect: The Pedagogy of Intimate and Banal Moments in Glee

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The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education

Abstract

While sexuality and schooling are often seen to have a difficult relationship, entertainment texts such as television hold the potential to present a range of different ways to think about sex, relationships, and identity. Moreover, as cultural forms, texts such as Glee (2009–2015) affectively engage and potentially touch viewers. Incorporating a number of queer characters and presenting sexuality as both banal and a topic of concern, Glee offers an opportunity to engage with the messiness of relationships. This chapter analyzes the implications of flashbacks depicted in Glee episode ‘The Break Up’ (4.4) considering the interactions between three couples whose relationships break up in the episode. It is argued that this constitutes a pedagogical moment which illustrates the ways in which touch intimately links characters.

Having just been dumped by Rachel (Lea Michele), Finn (Cory Monteith) stands alone on the high school auditorium stage. As he sings a cover of Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’, seven other characters appear around him, joining in the song. They stand still, facing the non-existent audience. Each character that appears has had their relationship placed in jeopardy in this episode and the performance is interspersed with flashbacks to one significant moment from each of these relationships. Finn and Rachel share an awkward first kiss on the auditorium stage. Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) hold hands running down a hallway at Dalton Academy. Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera) sit in glee club and smile at each other. Teachers Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and Emma Pilsbury (Jayma Mays) kiss in the school hallway. As the song ends, Finn looks around the empty stage.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    NYADA, the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fictional college in New York teaching singing, dancing, and acting that Rachel is accepted to attend at the end of season three, and Kurt is accepted into in season four.

  2. 2.

    This piano motif was composed by James S. Levine.

  3. 3.

    When Kurt is crowned prom queen in season two he is upset, but refuses to sit beside Blaine with his back against the locker. Instead, Kurt kneels in front of him signaling that this is perhaps a position of disempowerment he refuses to experience again (2.20).

  4. 4.

    Public Displays of Affection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia

    Kyra Clarke

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  1. Kyra Clarke
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Correspondence to Kyra Clarke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Louisa Allen

  2. School of Sociology Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Mary Lou Rasmussen

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Clarke, K. (2017). Touching Affect: The Pedagogy of Intimate and Banal Moments in Glee. In: Allen, L., Rasmussen, M.L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_21

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