Facilitating For a Conscious Awareness of Oneself Through Literature. Using 2001: A Space Odyssey as a facilitator in the classroom for enhancing student’s perspective taking and capacity to mentally time travel

Abstract

This thesis aims to show how literature can be used to facilitate a deeper understanding of ourselves and our imaginative mind, inside and outside the classroom. The novel that will be used as an example is Arthur C. Clarke’s renowned 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The novel revolves around Clarke’s worldview and prospections about the future, musing on the existential questions which have puzzled our species since the time of the first abstract thought. The novel’s challenging qualities make it usable for what the new Norwegian curriculum (2017) wants to promote in the modern classroom. Through discussions and creative writing one can create an arena which promotes metacognition, openness, curiosity, and self-awareness. By promoting these abilities one can enhance the student’s ability to use imagination generatively and help create an understanding of oneself and others. A national curriculum is a reasonable benchmark to evaluate where we are as a society and what values and attitudes we cherish as a culture. This thesis therefore represents an interval-timed checkup to see where we are and where we are heading as a species in relation to Clarke’s view on the world. While the thesis offers analytic observations about our society, it also aims to suggest how we should progress in the classroom to help the next generation become more aware and more responsible than what we currently are.