Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why

The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. These are broad and expansive themes and so what we wish to do is to provide a perhaps dramatic case study example of state engagement with the arts for political and security purposes. Our critical case is that of the Central Intelligence Agency...

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Main Authors: Gearon, L, Wynne-Davies, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2019
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author Gearon, L
Wynne-Davies, M
author_facet Gearon, L
Wynne-Davies, M
author_sort Gearon, L
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description The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. These are broad and expansive themes and so what we wish to do is to provide a perhaps dramatic case study example of state engagement with the arts for political and security purposes. Our critical case is that of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engagement with the arts during the Cold War and newly uncovered archival evidence of the CIA involvemenwith the writers’ organisation which is still thriving today, International PEN. Our argument is that the state security engagement with the arts and literature is an important exemplar of what we term the influence of public education by often covert means, which may derogatively be referred to as propaganda, or what Jameson called the ‘political unconscious’. From the archival evidence arising from CIA engagement with the arts we derive three principles of intellectual framing for analysis of the critical aesthetic of philosophy of education: (1) the political aesthetic of security and literature; (2) cultural citizenship as security; (3) the educational ecosystem of literature as securitisation. In sum, we suggest philosophers of education sharpen their treatmentof literature in education with more realistic and informed assessments of the aesthetic in political and security contexts. Methodologically, by implication, we think we also make the case for philosophers of education to make greater and more frequent use of primary documentation, particularly archival sources in order to be able to substantiate such sharpened treatments.
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spelling oxford-uuid:58d3e6fc-6146-4be6-a608-dfb3e48436872022-03-26T17:06:01ZLiterature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and whyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:58d3e6fc-6146-4be6-a608-dfb3e4843687EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2019Gearon, LWynne-Davies, MThe Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. These are broad and expansive themes and so what we wish to do is to provide a perhaps dramatic case study example of state engagement with the arts for political and security purposes. Our critical case is that of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engagement with the arts during the Cold War and newly uncovered archival evidence of the CIA involvemenwith the writers’ organisation which is still thriving today, International PEN. Our argument is that the state security engagement with the arts and literature is an important exemplar of what we term the influence of public education by often covert means, which may derogatively be referred to as propaganda, or what Jameson called the ‘political unconscious’. From the archival evidence arising from CIA engagement with the arts we derive three principles of intellectual framing for analysis of the critical aesthetic of philosophy of education: (1) the political aesthetic of security and literature; (2) cultural citizenship as security; (3) the educational ecosystem of literature as securitisation. In sum, we suggest philosophers of education sharpen their treatmentof literature in education with more realistic and informed assessments of the aesthetic in political and security contexts. Methodologically, by implication, we think we also make the case for philosophers of education to make greater and more frequent use of primary documentation, particularly archival sources in order to be able to substantiate such sharpened treatments.
spellingShingle Gearon, L
Wynne-Davies, M
Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title_full Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title_fullStr Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title_full_unstemmed Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title_short Literature and security: CIA engagement in the arts. What philosophers of education need to know and why
title_sort literature and security cia engagement in the arts what philosophers of education need to know and why
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