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On the Pedagogy (and theater) of the oppressed
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Liberation Theology
Recognizes the need for liberaiton from any kind of oppression
Asserts that theology must grow out of the basic Christian communities and must not be top-down.
Liberation Theology and Freire
Developed from Latin and African American Contexts
Criticism of capitalism/engagement with communitarian and Marxist formulation of emancipation
Focus on religious praxis
Critical Literacy
learning as reflective and dialogical
Reading the word vs. the world
Integrationn of political dimension to education
Coconut tree
Critical Pedagogy
Education as an act of humanization
Goal of education is not the individualist improvement of one’s lot but a collective liberation from conditions of oppression
Role of intellectuals: working with and not for people
Critical Consciousness or Conscientisation
Awareness of social/political contradictions
Analytical attitudes towards one’s own positionality and circumstances
Awareness of patterns/internalization and prescription
Collective/collaborative process
No division between different forms of knowledge
Replication of Oppression
Internalized Oppression
Mimicy, absence of self-reflection or critical consciousness
Inaction despite knowledge
Pacification, division
Oppressor vs. Oppressed
Subject Positions: A false binary. Do not focus on the individuals, focus on the roles they occupy.
Dialectical relations: They feed into one another.
Banking Method of Education
Learner as lacking/ignorant
Teacher as knowing/expert
Education as investment for social gains
Dialogical Learning
Learner as knowledgeable
Teacher as facilitator; reciprocal
Education as process of collective liberation
Educations Working With looks like…
Trust in the agency of the oppressed
Critical consciousness and empathy
Critical/liberation-seeking dialogue
Agit-Prop
Agitational (excited affect from) propaganda (issue awareness)
Russia, 1917
Taking performance to public sites
Epic/Dialectical Theater
Spectator becomes critical observer
Enstrangement: disrupt identification of spectator with action
Creation of critical distance
Drama and Critical Consciousness
Chorus as commentator
Direct address
Acting technique in 3rd Person
Documentary/instruction projections
Unveiling the backstage
Freire’s Influence on Boal
Breaking the fourth wall: spect-actors
Demechanization and humanization
Theater as dialogical process of social transformation
Theater as rehearsal for revolution
Dehumanization
a result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors
flattens both oppressed and oppressor
False Generosity
Without critical praxis, any good deed done by the oppressor is inutile or struggles to call for freedom. True generosity liberates.
Dehumanization of the Oppressor
An owning-instinct. A will to objectify.
“to be is to own/have/oppress”
Necrophilic World: To be sadistic. To impinge on the rights/freedoms of others to live. A drive to death.
Dehumanization of the Oppressed
A subjugation instinct. A will to be objectified.
“To be is to be owned/oppressed”
Necrophilic World: To live without freedom of will.
Alignment with the Oppressor Role
The oppressed will first want to identify with the oppressor, to become the oppressor. They must realize that liberation is to collapse the role of “oppressor” entirely.
The oppressor will struggle to detach themself from the interests of the role they were given. Any inch given feels like disempowerment.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Who else knows about oppression more than the oppressed?
Oppressor-pedagogy is objectifying, egoistic, oppressive.
The oppressed must humanize, subjectify themselves to learn more about themselves and move to liberation.
Then, they must act. It means nothing without action. (Praxis)
Solidarity
Solidarity requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is solidary; it is a radical posture. It is to transform objective reality.
Violence and Oppression
Hindering one’s pursuit of self-affirmation, to reject one’s humanity.
The oppressed’s rebuttals/replying in violence is not the primary form of violence.
Humanization is therefore an act of love.
Oppressor Solidarity
The mark of cain follows
Bourdieu. Their background is inherent to them. They may become savior-types; they do not trust the objects of their saviorship. They may be unwilling to actually uproot the system.
They must recognize the strength of the oppressed.
Oppressed Solidarity
They may direct harm horizontally: at each other.
Their position in life feels God-given. So why change it?
Inability to realize their own knowledge and power. They were raised to distrust themselves.
They must see the weakness of the oppressor.
The Cop in Our Head
Internalized oppression, cynicism, or self-policing
Headquartered in external reality
Principles of the Theater of the Oppressed
To help the spectator become a protagonist of the dramatic action so that
They can apply those actions they rehearsed in the theater in reality
Hypothesis 1: Osmosis
Values of the macro bleed in and reflect in the micro
Hegemony: the dominating ideas in a given society are those of the dominating class
The traditional theater play osmoses ideas; looping between actors and watchers
Break what is holy and introduce external reality to the stage
Hypothesis 2: Metaxis
Traditional Theater: Empathy (Inner Feeling). We project our inside feelings to what we watch.
Theater of the Oppressed: Sympathy (Feeling with). Spect-actors create and generate their own feelings.
aestheticizing reality
Everyone a unique spect-actor
Hypothesis 3: Analogical Induction
Sympathy is immediate in a theater full of your community members due to their shared experience. However, it is possible someone has a distinct experience they share, which shifts the group back to empathy.
To solve this, open discussion, ask for varying experiences, solutions, reflections. Provide a distance between action and reflection. The person becomes both subject and object.