Syllabus
The seminar will cover three major topics: 1. Politics intertwined with aesthetics? (Jan Bíba)
The idea of perspective and the birth of modern political thought (the case of Machiavelli)
Politics and the power of the beholder (visibility, spectatorship) 2. Aesthetics and democracy from political theory perspective (Michael Räber)
Does aestheticization of politics/democracy lead to unfreedom and fascism? (Benjamin, Rousseau, Plato)
The counter-thesis (Rancière, Kant, Shiller) 3. How we feel democracy? (Till van Rahden)
Democracy as Way of LIfe (Hook, Walzer)
Democracy's poetry: Walt Whitman
Clumsy Democrats: Moral Passions in the Federal Republic
‘I Know You Are Here. I Feel It.’ On Democratic Forms as Elusive Objects
Annotation
When we think about politics, we usually see it as congenial with the realm of speech. Therefore, students of politics (and democratic politics especially) have paid attention to different speech acts (discussion, deliberation, negotiation, to name just a few) that they have considered politics' essence. The Aesthetics and Politics course challenges this traditional view. Instead of focusing on what we say, the course concentrates on politic's aesthetical dimension, not only on what we say but also on what we see, taste, touch, in general, on the way we feel politics.
The lectures will introduce several vital areas of interconnection between politics and aesthetics. Firstly, they will ask whether an invention of perspective drawing in the renaissance might be considered a prerequisite to the birth of modern political thought. Secondly, they will ask about the relationship between aestheticization and democracy. While aestheticization of politics is usually seen as incommensurable with democracy leading to totalitarianism, the lectures will ask whether aesthetics dimension of politics can be conducive to democratization of democracy. Finally, the lectures will discuss the relationship between aesthetics objects and democracy. Has democracy its specific aesthetics form? Is there such a thing as democratic poetry or democratic architecture? Do democratic monuments or graves of prominent democratic politicians share specific aesthetics?
The course will be taught by Jan Bíba (Charles University), Till van Rahden (University of Montreal), and Michael Räber (UCLA, University of Zurich).
The lectures will take place on April 29, May 6 and 13. However, the course will take place only if hygienic measures in effect allow professors Rahden and Räber to come to the Czech Republic.