Inhabiting culture: Spanish anarchists’ vision of cultural learning through aesthetics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Abstract

Revisions of textual and audio-visual materials reveal the educational vision of Spanish anarchists. Through research, we have discovered the importance of aesthetical education and art in general for this protest political party. By studying the three key historical moments of the movement (1868–1939/ 1901–1910/ 1910–1936–1939) we have traced the evolution of the concept and practice of cultural learning. What stands out in the origins of the movement is the concern to introduce art and culture into school subjects while disseminating this knowledge to the whole population. Later, when the Modern School opened, the arts were introduced into the syllabus of teachinglearning. The aesthetic principles defended in the first period were turned into literary works with the aim of educating children from rationalist schools. Finally, we identify a time when the materials created by the Modern School were disseminated to working-class schools as a form of resistance against the politics proposed by government parties. The outbreak of the Civil War turned the corpus of aesthetical education into a cultural programme of demilitarised political resistance. 1.