Phenomenology of audiovisual narrative for an ethical formation employing “anime”

Abstract

Ethic formation faces the challenge of being understandable for students, but, aboveall, of being expressed in their own ways of understanding and discussing their lives, in orderto be relevant. One especially attractive form among children and young people is audiovisualcommunication, whose formative potential has been usually understood in instrumental terms,when not absolutely denied. This article presents a phenomenological proposal to dialogicallyelaborate in the classroom the problematization of duty centered ethics, as it is dramatized in twoJapanese animation productions (“anime”). In first place, it discusses phenomenologically howto understand the formative potential of the experience of watching an animated narrative. Insecond place, it claims that the phenomenological reinterpretation of the categorical imperativecan overcome its disconnection from the affective dimension of the ethical subject and his factualcontexts of action to focus on the caring of the human condition of vulnerability. In third place,it shows how the previous discussions are elaborated in two “anime”, which allow students toexperientially involve themselves in these ethical interpellations and offer teachers the opportunityto embrace their student’s insights in a dialogical learning experience understood narratively.It concludes summarizing the opportunities and challenges presented to teachers from thisperspective of the meaning of audiovisual creations in the education activity.