Monolinguism of Other as a Limit of a Narrative Identity. Retelling the University Today

Abstract

In the middle of the student movement of 1968 in France, Paul Ricoeur raised a reform and a revolution perspective about the University centered on two nuclear aspects: a) the reformulation of the functional structure of the University; and b) the transformation of the University from the relationship between teachers and students. Ricoeur affirmed that the crisis of civilization that inhabits the society, prevents to transform the University, and that it is only from the own language of this institution this transformation could be accomplished. Ricoeur evidences the rhetoric and discourse of capitalist production that is invading the University and changing its nature. The richness of his narrative work and action settings included in Mimesis I-III is of what hinted at in the center of the teacher-student relationship that can provide us valuable interpretative trails to understand and propose alternative solutions to the contemporary University crisis. This communication shows how the contamination of academic capitalism distorts the narrative processes all together: to say, tell, recognize others, promise, attesting and remember, to the point that members of the educational community are unable to build a narrative identity, to recognize themselves in their socio-academic trajectories, to recognize the institution and finally, to be recognized by the institution. The distortion allows the extension of a capitalist hegemonic discourse throughout the individuals’ socio-educational experiences and contaminates their life trajectories. Finally, this paper suggests some alternatives to re-think the crisis of the University through the link between a pedagogical intention to an ethical intention.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p682