“Never Again the Everyday”: On Cinema, Colportage and the Pedagogical Possibilities of Escapism

Abstract

This article is a philosophical analysis of escapism as a pedagogical possibility, with a particular focus on TV series. Taking my own, as well as students, experience of escapism into TV series as a starting point, that is, their ability take us somewhere far away, something which has become more acute during the pandemic time since we remain more or less self-isolated because of the corona virus Covid-19, the article discusses escapism in relation to distraction and attention in life as well as within teaching, but also in relation to colportage, hope and social justice. According to Ernst Bloch, social justice cannot materialize without regarding things differently. Something that is often dismissed as mere escapism might be a seed for a new and more humane social order, as it can be seen as an “immature, but honest substitute for revolution” (Bloch 1986, p. 368). Drawing on Bloch’s understanding of colportage and hope, as well as Walter Benjamin’s understanding of mass culture and cinema, the article treats escapism and TV series not as something simple, but rather as possible seeds for a new social order and thus as having pedagogical possibilities (Hållander, 2020).

Exemplets didaktik

“…Lewis i sin tur argumenterar för och utvecklar vad det innebär att studera, samt begreppet potentialitet i utbildning (vilket också Vlieghe gör), i boken On study: Giorgio Agamben and Educational Potentiality (Lewis, 2013). Även jag har använt mig av Agambens filosofi för att pedagogisk och didaktisk utveckla mitt eget arbete om vittnande och vittnesmål som pedagogiska fenomen (Hållander, 2017;, men också i relation till fenomenen delaktighet och eskapism (Hållander, 2021). I dessa arbeten samt i denna artikel har Agambens potentialitets-begreppet betydelse för just förståelsen av subjektivitet; som en utveckling och förståelse av elevers subjektivitet mellan frihet, styrning, och bildning.…”

Cinema, Philosophy and Education

“…Turning from the more exceptional cases of "cinema-thinking", as presented by the South Korean production of The Parasite, to more profane, "non-art" instances of cinema, Marie Hållander in her article explores the political, the revolutionary and the pedagogical possibilities of moments and hours of escapism which the watching of TV-series provides. Tak-ing her experience of sitcoms entering the university classroom on students' smartphones as a starting point in the analysis, Hållander employs Ernst Bloch's and Walter Benjamin's writings to develop a hopeful perspective on the potential of seeming moments of mindless distraction and argues that "escapism can be a form of utopian thinking that could be the seed of changing things" (Hållander 2021). Hållander examines these particular forms of daydreaming and escapism as forms of a "not-yet", of things which have not yet passed into actuality, but which nevertheless present the possibility of enacting new beginnings.…”