By Way of Conclusion: Ten Theses

The Conclusion, in ten theses, brings together the central arguments of the book: Literature is not only particularly suited to historicizing and to understanding present-day debates. As, in different manifestations, an occasionally indirect way of approaching contested issues and an exercise in perspective-taking, it also lends itself as an occasion for conversation in highly polarized situations where dialogue otherwise no longer takes place. Building on the work of Martha Nussbaum and others, it suggests that educational institutions - from kindergarten to higher education - are crucial to the purpose of using literature to foster a culture of civic debate for several reasons: These are institutions everyone goes through in formative periods of their lives and institutions in which many of the key debates are waged anyway, in which conflict behaviour is acquired and in which a culture of reasonable debate can and must be learned and practiced. Moreover, it is in primary and secondary education (and in some formats and fields of higher education) that learning with and through literature (in age-appropriate ways) happens anyway or can easily be made to happen. Finally, a number of the key debates even originate in and about education and educational institutions themselves.