Sem-analysing events: towards a cultural pedagogy of hope.

EXPERIENCE; SEPTEMBER 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001; TERRORISM; SEMIOTICS; LIFE change events; PSYCHOANALYSIS; KRISTEVA, Julia, 1941-; CULTURE; LEARNING

This paper locates the concept of learning among real-life human experiences and events. Functioning as a sign, a meaningful event can be understood in terms of a cultural extra-linguistic “text.” Reading and interpreting diverse cultural “texts” are equivalent to constructing and learning critical symbolic lessons embedded in a continuous process of our experiential, both intellectual and ethical, growth. The paper employs Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abjection and her method of semanalysis as a synthesis of philosophy, psychoanalysis and semiotics. Extending semiotic analysis to the level of informal education, the paper asserts that real-life events, such as the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, can become a means towards constructing the cultural pedagogy of hope paramount to sustaining a global society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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