Experience report on manifestations of barbarism in the school environment: the encounter between Theodor Adorno's emancipatory education and Georges Bataille's transgressive literature as a philosophical-literary práxis

Abstract

The present experiential account aims to provide a broad overview of the research on the intersection between Theodor Adorno's emancipatory education and Georges Bataille's transgressive literature. It seeks to problematize and reflect on how to break the cycles of violence in the school environment without resorting to normative and moralizing principles. The study discusses and highlights the importance of the dialogue between literature and philosophy, as the latter alone cannot reflectively engage students. In Bataille, there is an opportunity for transgression, error, and emotion as a philosophical-literary opportunity to redefine prejudiced attitudes. Emancipatory activities such as documentary production, autobiographies, and performances were undertaken by third-year high school students at the State School Nossa Senhora Aparecida in the municipality of Formosa do Rio Preto, Bahia. The research is anchored in Adorno's texts "Education and Emancipation" (2006) and "Negative Dialectics" (2009), as well as Bataille's "Story of the Eye" (2018) and "Literature and Evil" (2015). The qualitative methodology allows for reflection on the students' narratives as authors of their own life project.