Bildung as an educational paradigm is wildly influential. However, it does not exist without critiques. Bildung is an ideal that is founded on a very specific kind of German outlook, that proposes...Show moreBildung as an educational paradigm is wildly influential. However, it does not exist without critiques. Bildung is an ideal that is founded on a very specific kind of German outlook, that proposes a staunch look towards the sciences, humanities and the arts. It promotes the study of them as the highest ideal that will constitute a good moral person. A problem that comes with this stance, however, is the underlying tendency to study this historicised account of the world and to do that whilst not being in the world. What this paper sets out to do, is question these methodological pathologies of Bildung, after which the intercultural angle, allows Ubuntu to be used to revitalise Bildung. This revitalisation is done through the centrality of Ramose’s be-ing becoming, and the proverb Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu. These two notions allow Bildung to move beyond its pietist chains, and show how the methodological underpinning of Bildung can be reinterpreted as being outwards and in the world.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis argues that the literary relevance of The Private Memoirs is its examination of the sometimes problematic desire for belonging and self-realisation. The novel, seen as a satirical...Show moreThis thesis argues that the literary relevance of The Private Memoirs is its examination of the sometimes problematic desire for belonging and self-realisation. The novel, seen as a satirical Bildungsroman, shows that Robert Wringhim’s failure both to reach maturity and assimilate into society is the result of his inability to change. One needs to constantly (re)negotiate between self and other to safely integrate into society – this is a form of Bildung, as understood in Herder’s conceptualisation of the term. However, Robert fails to integrate, because he refuses to change his early identity, which, in turn, leads to the creation of a doppelgänger. Also, his parents teach Robert that he is preordained to live in heaven which causes him to feel that above all he belongs to this future state. Ultimately, with no self-realisation and a strong desire to go to where he feels he belongs, Robert’s short life can only end in his premature death. Finally, The Private Memoirs is not merely a critique of bad parenting or religious excess. Rather, Robert and his family become a metonymy for something larger and more prevalent: liberalism and civil society, where freedom becomes freedom to have property, rather than freedom of thought. In the end, liberalism is portrayed as a system of exclusion rather than inclusion of differences.Show less
