Story Skills and Hierarchies of Needs and Values: A Defence of the Humanities

Abstract

This article is a defense of the humanities that emphasises the nature and value of humanistic knowledge. I firstly outline the present negative perceptions of the humanities and the factors that constrain their development in South Africa. Chief among them is the privileging of technical rational knowledge above Bildung and self-development. Against the background of views on social dedifferentiation and the end of the book I emphasise the career value of the humanities. I try to reverse the opposition between technical rationalist knowledge and Bildung by analysing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and confronting his theory with a number of findings of our recent research into the identity and literary space. Two keywords that feature strongly are centrality and narrativity. The implications of this view are explored in a brief analysis of Eben Venter’s novel Foxtrot van die vleiseters (1993) [Foxtrot of the Meat-eaters].

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel is ’n verdediging van die humaniora wat klem lê op die aard en waarde van kennis binne hierdie dissiplines. Ek skets eers die huidige negatiewe persepsies van die humaniora en die faktore wat hulle in Suid-Afrika beperk. Dit kom breedweg neer op ’n teenstelling tussen tegnies-rasionele kennis en selfverwesen-liking. Teen die agtergond van sienings oor sosiale dedifferensiëring en die einde van die boek beklemtoon ek die loopbaanwaarde van die humaniora. Die teen-stelling tussen tegniese rasionaliteit en Bildung word verder ondersoek deur Maslow se behoeftehiërargie krities te ontleed en sy teorie te konfronteer met ’n aantal bevindings uit ons navorsing oor identiteit en literêre ruimte. Sleutelwoorde in hierdie verband is sentraliteit en narratiwiteit. Die implikasies van hierdie siening word uitgespel in ’n kort analise van Eben Venter se roman Foxtrot van die vleiseters  [Foxtrot of the Meat-eaters] (1993).