Literature Reading as Radical Aesthetics: Exploring the Democratic, Critical, and Radical Potential of Literature

• In Event: Applying Freirean Praxis to Academic Responsibility

Abstract

Research shows that young people today experience stress and anxiety over global and societal challenges, such as climate change, racial injustice and violence against women. Accepting an educational responsibility calls for empirically informed knowledge on the ways that education can deal with urgent issues of today. The present paper explores how literature can be used in this endeavor. Drawing on critical literacy and the concept radical aesthetics, we take part in two reading circles with primarily female participants. Our aim is to develop knowledge on how students make use of the literary encounter in order to reflect on and problematize pressing topics in today’s society for empowering and liberating purposes.

Authors

• Elin Sundström Sjödin, Mälardalen University

• Eva Hultin, Dalarna University

• Linn Areskoug, Uppsala University