AESTHETICS I

Within the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Philosophy, this course aims to introducestudents to the classics of the discipline, to its problems and fundamental authors through the direct reading of some crucial texts. Students are supposed to develop a historical comprehension of main aesthetic issues, as well as a critical understanding of their theoretical consequences, also with reference to the most recent debate.
With reference to the Bachelor’s Degree Progamme in Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Performing Arts Management, this course also aims to develop a historical and theoretical awareness about the use of some concepts such as art, fine arts, art autonomy, artwork and aesthetic experience, with particular reference to a historical and cultural contextualization of these terms.

The course “Aesthetics I” is intended to provide students with an introduction to Authors, topics, and problems that have played a crucial role in the development of the discipline and that continue to be discussed in the contemporary debate. The overall objective is to allow students to get a critical understanding of both the historical and the theoretical meaning of Aesthetics central issues and their impact upon the general context of human experience.

Given its introductory nature, the course is particularly (though not exclusively) aimed at students with little or no prior knowledge of the history of Aesthetics, and, more specifically, of the debate on the notion of the Sublime. Nevertheless, a smattering of the third Kantian Critique will facilitate the easy comprehension of the subject.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part will offer a genealogy of the notion of the “Sublime”, with special attention being paid to 18th- and 19-th century debate (Kant, Burke). The second part will instead focus on the changes and reformulations of the concept during XXth century history and theory of art (with particular reference to Abstract Expressionism).

• I. Kant, Critique of Judgement (1790), Oxford University Press 2007 (or any other editions), §§ 23-29 + the "General Remark" after § 29.
• Fr. Schiller, On the Sublime (any edition)
• B. Newman, The Sublime is Now, in Selected Writings and Interviews, University of California Press 1992,pp. 170-174.
• R. Rosenblum, The Abstract Sublime, “ARTnews”, 60:1 (febbraio 1961), pp. 39-40 e 56-58.
• J.-F. Lyotard, The Inhuman (1984), Polity Press 1991, pp. 78-107.
• A. Danto, Barnett Newman and the Heroic Sublime, “The Nation” 274:23 (2002), pp. 25-29.

Non-attending students must add:
• I. Kant, Critique of Judgement (1790), Oxford University Press 2007 (or any other editions), §§ 1-23 + the "General Remark" after § 29.
• Ph. Shaw, The Sublime, Routledge 2005.

The learning objectives of the course will be tested through an ORAL exam of about 30 mins.

Frontal lessons.
Critical reading of the texts.

written