Seminary of esthetics

Teacher(s)

Klimis Sophie; Pfeiffer Natacha (compensates Klimis Sophie);

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

The seminar is a research-seminar and intends to introduce the students to research-creation. As a preliminary gesture, we will question the ‘inherited institution’ (Castoriadis) of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline. We are used to think of aesthetics as devoted to the study of works of arts as well as of ‘Beauty’. But the etymology of its name (aesthesis) points to everything we can experiment with our sense organs. Moreover, we will see that the philosophical institution of ‘aesthetics’ as a specific topic, which is due to Aristotle’s Poetics, often aims at repeling the political dimension of artistic performances and works of art. We will try to read this kind of philosophical texts with a critical mind (we can mention, for instance, Heidegger’s ‘Origin of the work of art’). But we will also focus on hybrid texts, creating a kind of ‘poetical philosophy’ or ‘philosophical poetry’ in order to be empowered with a political performativity or even to build a new culture (Nietzsche with his Zarathoustra, for instance).

Content

The content of the seminar changes every year.
We will work on philosophical works (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Heidegger, Arendt, Rancière, Castoriadis) as well as on ‘philosophers-poets’ (Nietzsche, Glissant), playwrights which have also theorized their own art (Brecht, Artaud) and performances the professor has been involved in (with Theatercombinat in Vienna, Theater companies such as Sturmfrei and Kaleidos in Switzerland, Avignon Festival, etc.)

Evaluation methods

Oral presentation + writing an Essay

Bibliography

Une bibliographie est disponible sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

PHLB