Towards a Sustainable Imagination: Reflections on Olav H. Hauge and the Teaching of Poetry

Abstract

This chapter discusses reading as an aesthetic, embodied pleasure, capable of forming eye-opening passages for students struggling to come to grips with life. The poems discussed are by Olav H. Hauge (1908–1994), one of Norway’s outstanding poets. For many years, Hauge struggled with his mental health, and his poetry reflects his search for a better life. Drangeid explores three topics, all related to the imagination. First, he points towards the importance of poetic passages connecting both poet and reader to everyday life. Next, he considers Hauge’s animation of his environment and the resulting entwining of humans and non-humans. This leads to a discussion of tensions in Hauge’s life and poetry, between connectedness and longing for wider horizons. Based on eco-cognitive theory and sustainability understood as a textual quality, the author argues in favour of a more imaginative teaching approach.