Bildung as ‘Divergence’: Learning in the Dystopian University

Abstract In this paper, I offer an account of the 2014 dystopian-fiction film Divergent, based on the novel by Veronica Roth. The film tells the story of Beatrice, a young woman living in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, and her process of enrolment into the higher education system. I argue that Beatrice’s troubled story can help us to uncover the high tension between today’s university’s self-alienating mechanisms and the thirst for Bildung. I suggest that the notion of ‘divergence’ can help to develop an account of Bildung in an innovative direction. ‘Divergence’ is a term used in the film to define individuals – like Beatrice – who cannot fit into the categories established by the government to sort students into appropriate educational pathways. I link the notion of ‘divergence’ to an interpretation of Gadamer’s account of Bildung. First, I draw on Gadamer’s thinking to suggest the metaphor of the university as a ‘crossroads’ and outline the idea of the risks and possibilities that are attached to authentic learning experience. Then I explore the self-alienating mechanisms that Gadamer saw at work within the post-industrial structure of the university. In conclusion, I develop Gadamer’s notion of self-education along the lines of the idea of divergence. Whilst some argue that the university can still be a place for human encounter and gathering (Fulford and Mahon 2023), I aim to show that, without divergence, it remains a site of displacement, or a dystopia.