Carnival, paranoia and experiential learning

Theories of experiential learning have tended to view experience as liberating only insofar as it frees us both from the contagious influence of others and from the unruly, irrational Other within. This paper first traces this view of experience to the privatising of body and mind that emerged with capitalism and liberal humanism as public discourse became preoccupied with dirt, licentiousness and self-control, and as economic and political prerogatives were justified by the ability to constrain the self within carefully crafted, socially governable norms. It then uses Bakhtin's notion of carnival as the basis for an alternative understanding of experience. This alternative view rests neither on the fear of contagion by others nor the splitting off of the Other within the self, but rather celebrates the sociality of experience and affirms the interplay between the body and the world. Finally, the paper locates insurgent meanings for experiential learning in various sites within contemporary culture, including collectivist social movements, the destabilising of unitary identities and social categories, and the challenge to binary gender identity.A good sewer (is) a far nobler and a far holier thing… than the most admired Madonna ever printed. (John Ruskin)Believe that what is productive is not sedentary but nomadic. (Michel Foucault)