Humanistika i “javni interes”
Humanities And “Public Interest”

Summary/Abstract: Positioned within the field which is delineated by tradi-tional humanities, on the one side, and contemporary crit-icisms of Bologna educational reform, on the other, this paper aims to indicate social significance of studying and teaching literature today. The following question is used as a starting point for analysis: did ”culture wars“, which significantly influenced our understanding of art and art production in the last decades, indeed prove the necessity of overcoming all those literary-educational models that are often connected, sometimes having a negative con-notation, to the adjective “humanist”?The concept of humanities explored in this paper was defined by the Chicago school (R. McKeon, R. S. Crane) in the mid-twentieth-century; slightly modified, it was advocated among Yugoslav scholars by literary theorist and historian Svetozar Petrović. Instead of identifying hu-manities with specific objectsof analysis, or abstract aimsof analysis, identifying should be made with methodsof analysis and interpretation, which are used in the encoun-ter with ”unusually excellent“ works and achievements.However, one might ask whether such an understanding of humanities can put an end to all misunderstandings and contradictions inherent to the study of literature? In order to answer the question, roles of teacher,researcher,and criticare examined, relying on Crane’s and Petrović’s points of view. It is then emphasized that those three functions must be integrated in the process of education. In conclusion, concrete public interest is recognized not only in stopping negative university trends and tenden-cies, but also in enriching existing institutional frame-works with specific type of ”charismatic“ pedagogy.

• Details
• Contents