The art of straying as aesthetic education. Issue 3 (3rd July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Snir, Itay; Zamojski, Piotr
• Is Part Of: Ethics and education. Volume 17:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 367
• Publication Date: 2022-07-03
• Subjects: Walter Benjamin -- antifascist education -- Herbert Marcuse -- Friedrich schiller -- aesthetic education; Education -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; Education -- Aims and objectives -- Periodicals; Education -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Moral education -- Periodicals; 370.1
• DOI: 10.1080/17449642.2022.2116820
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-9642

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Our discussion addresses Benjamin's antifascist education through the lens of aesthetic education and Herbert Marcuse's aesthetic theory. While this theme is not explicitly discussed in Lewis' book, we argue that it is essential for understanding the full political and educational potential of what he calls "the art of straying in the city". Such straying is aesthetic in a twofold way: it allows for the city to be experienced as a massive work of art, and at the same time it makes the one who strays an artist who creates herself as a work of art. This unique relation to the urban world is an antifascist and anticapitalist educational experience, as it becomes a politically creative catalyst for imagining another way of relating to self, others, and environment – a relation liberated from the imperatives of utility and profit.