Searching and finding “duende”: the role of aesthetic education in social transformation according to Lorca and Dewey

Abstract

In this paper, we bring into conversation the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) with American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey. We aim to explore how Lorca’s conceptualization of “duende” might provide a complimentary perspective to Dewey’s aesthetic theory as a basis for an aesthetic education oriented towards social rather than merely individual transformation. While both highlight the social nature of aesthetic experience and, with it, its potential for social transformation, Lorca’s “duende” foregrounds ‘feeling’ and the expression of raw emotion over reflectivity and intellectual understanding, which are at the heart of Dewey’s concept of aesthetic experience. As such, we argue, “duende” offers a novel perspective on aesthetic experience as a catalyst for social transformation based on deep empathy and care for other’s suffering and pain in their marginalisation, rather than a primarily intellectual grasp of their lived inequality. Throughout, the paper reflects on the question of how such aesthetic experiences might be cultivated in the context of aesthetic education.