Fiktionslitteratur som kunskapsform och bildning. Teoretiska grunder och ett exempel från den högskolepedagogiska praktiken

Abstract

In higher education, especially in professional education programs, there is today a growing interest in adding literary fiction to the curricula. Philosophers and educationalists discussing contemporary forms of liberal education and Bildung also argue that narrative art is essential to the faculties of self-examination and understanding the life and realities of the other and as such important in the education of the future world citizens. This article brings to the fore and combines certain literary and esthetical theories thus presenting a coherent theoretical foundation to the use of literary fiction, especially novels, as a form of knowledge. It also gives a practical example of how to take advantage of the potentials of literary fiction as form of knowledge in higher education aiming towards Bildung in the current sense of the word.