On narratives of self-formation and education

Abstract

In this paper I begin with Schleiermacher review and analyze the origins of the Humboldtian model of the modern German university as an influential kind of institution that was adopted in many parts of Europe, the US and beyond. The novel of education and of ethical self-formation came to provide a novelistic depicted of the essential human becoming of the hero protagonist and engendered a new genre that spread throughout the world. The paper asks the question where and what might be the novel of the neoliberal university in an age when the humanistic requirement has fallen away and students have become “customers” purchasing an educational service. Is there a novel of the neoliberal university that does not end- lessly replicate the logic of the marketplace but actually intervenes in material reality to “save” the institution? JEL codes: H52; H75; I21; I23 Keywords: Humboldt; Schleiermacher; Fichte; German University; Bildungsroman; Erziehungsroman; Morgenstern; Bakhtin; novel of education; self-formation, educational self-transformation