GENERATIONAL INCLINATIONS : EXPLORING REPRESENTATIONS OF PEDAGOGICALPOSTURES IN THE FICTIONAL EXAMPLE OF THE FILM MUD

Abstract: Relations are central in education and educational research. This thesis is an exploration of how generational relations are represented in an American film called Mud from 2012. In Mud, we are presented with the portrayal of the young and coming-of-age boy Ellis and his encounters with the mysterious title character. Despite the absence of formal education, the film deals with a young person’s formation and existential questions such as love and loss. Struggling with his parents’ upcoming separation, Ellis seeks refuge on an island together with a friend and meets a stranger (Mud). The young boy eventually views the man as a guide. For Herman Nohl (1933), the experience of being in relation to a guide is pivotal for one’s formation and the pedagogical relation rests upon this very experience. Hence, the aim is to shed light on the pedagogical relation and how the younger and older generations are seen to relate to each other (through the example of film). Put differently, the focus is to show how the characters in the film make use of different pedagogical postures and incline in relation to one another as well as to ‘the world’ in which they find themselves. I will argue that these bodily movements take place in various pedagogical spaces - open yet secluded ‘islands’. In highlighting how the film represents pedagogical relations, the thesis seeks to lay bare some of the ambiguities of the term. It is through problematising the idea of pedagogical relations that the thesis contributes to the field of educational theory. The thesis is divided into five main parts. In the first part I discuss the relevance of investigating the film Mud itself. The second part gives attention to the medium of film and how it can be understood. The three concepts of (pedagogical) relations, inclinations and the world are presented in the third part of the thesis. In analysing the film, I start by studying the initial scenes of the film where the younger generation is seen to relate to the older generation and the surrounding world. As the younger generation in the film travels along a river, I similarly go where the text takes me. The thesis ends with a concluding discussion and a summary.