The course aims at an in-depth gazing on the development of modern aesthetics, from the problem of taste to the processes of aestheticization of contemporaneity. The analysis of four pivotal essays (“Of the Standard of Taste” by Hume, “The Painter of Modern Life” by Baudelaire, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Benjamin and “The Disappearance of Art” by Baudrillard) will allow the critical deepening of some topics crucial to the matter.
1) D. Hume, La regola del gusto, Abscondita 2017;2) C. Baudelaire, Il pittore della vita moderna, Abscondita 2015;3) W. Benjamin, L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Donzelli 2011 (importante: solo questa edizione);4) J. Baudrillard, La sparizione dell’arte, SE 2017.
Learning Objectives
Knowledge and Understanding: acquisition of an appropriate historical and critical framing of the main theories of modern aesthetics from the XVIII century to contemporaneity.
Applying Knowledge and understanding: acquisition of an appropriate critical frame of aesthetic theories and their possible operative implications; focus on the relationship between aesthetics and the performing arts by the acquisition of a bibliographic and documentary equipment.
Making Judgements: basic analytical skills in the field of aesthetics.
Communication Skills: confidence with both the philosophical lexicon and the bibliographic instruments useful to the further exploration of contemporary aesthetics' themes.
Learning Skills: development of skills of conceptual elaboration and critical analysis.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Frontal classes with the support of slideshow, focusing on the development of a dialogic interaction.
Further information
Attendance is not mandatory although highly recommended.
Type of Assessment
The final exam will take place in oral form. The session will verify the level of knowledge the students reached after the completion of the course. The talk also aims at verifying the development of critical and conceptual competences.
Course program
Title: Paradigms of modern aesthetics. From taste to the contemporary aestheticization. The course aims at an in-depth gazing on the development of modern aesthetics, from the problem of taste to the processes of aestheticization of contemporaneity. The analysis of four pivotal essays (“Of the Standard of Taste” by Hume, “The Painter of Modern Life” by Baudelaire, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Benjamin and “The Disappearance of Art” by Baudrillard) will allow the critical deepening of some crucial nodes: taste and beauty (Hume), modernity and the aesthetics of artifice (Baudelaire), the technologization of aesthetics and mass culture (Benjamin), the aestheticization of the real and the post-modernist aesthetics (Baudrillard).