90862 - Elements of Contemporary Aesthetics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has the basic tools for interpreting the symbolic and productive processes that characterize today’s aesthetic field. He/she can contextualize the major aesthetic traditions (from arts to fashion) in the framework of last century’s culture. He/she also acquires the conceptual tools enabling him/her to understand and analyze communication through aesthetic categories and current key issues about taste, social roles and personal identity.

Course contents

Introduction to the Aesthetics of Commodities: Fetishism and the Aestheticization of Life in Consumer Society

The course aims to provide some fundamental conceptual and historical tools in order to understanding the most recent contemporary transformations of the aesthetic field. Starting from the analysis of the commodity form, its aesthetic specificities and its social function, the course will deepen in particular the reflections of some of the most significant authors who have dealt with the transformations of the aesthetics in the consumer society. On the basis of the theoretical contribution of the different authors, in the course we will try to understand the transformations of sensuous and aesthetic experience in relation to phenomena such as fashion, cinema, television, advertising, social networks, etc. and to the consumption sphere more generally, which represent essential fields of investigation for understanding the contemporary modalities in shaping taste and in structuring experience. Within this interpretive framework, we will especially focus the theoretical and practical implications of the aestheticization with respect to the processes of individual subjectivation and social interaction.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts/Bibliography

Mandatory texts:

Karl Marx, Il Capitale, vol. 1, sez. I, cap. I, La Merce], Einaudi, Torino, 1970, (o altra edizione).

Wolfgang F. Haug, Sulla critica dell'estetica delle merci, traduzione di Fabiola Pontoglio, in: Riccardo Ruschi (a cura di), Estetica tedesca oggi, Edizioni Unicopli, Milano, 1986, pp. 247-69 (online: http://www.wolfgangfritzhaug.inkrit.de/documents/Wae-ital.pdf)

Rolando Vitali, "Il fascino indiscreto della merce:
estetizzazione del quotidiano e feticismo" in: Stefano Marino (a cura di), Estetica, tecnica, politica, Milano, Mimesis, 2022, pp. 47 sgg.

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021, Introduzione pp. 13-88.

Isabelle Garo, Arte, in Marcello Musto (a cura di), Marx revival. Concetti essenziali e nuove letture, Donzelli, 2019, pp. 401-411.

Highly recommended: David Harvey, Introduzione al Capitale - 12 lezioni sul primo libro, Casa Usher, 2012, pp. 27-62.

Mandatory texts of choice (one choice for attendees, two choices for non-attendees)

György Lukács, "La reificazione e la coscienza del proletariato", § 1 in: Id., Storia e coscienza di classe, Mondadori, 1973, pp. 108-143 (o altra edizione).

Walter Benjamin, L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Donzelli, 2019 (o altra edizione).

Max Horkheimer e Theodor W. Adorno, "L'industra culturale", in Id., Dialettica dell’illuminismo, Einaudi, 2010, pp. 126-181+ Th. W. Adorno, Ricapitolazione sull'industria culturale, in Id., Parva Aesthetica, Feltrinelli 1979, pp. 58-68 (o altra edizione).

Guy Debord, La società dello spettacolo, Baldini&Castoldi, 2017.

Recommended texts

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di), L’incantesimo del capitale Reificazione e spettacolo, Mimesis, 2023.

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021.

Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Critique of Commodity Aesthetics: Appearance, Sexuality, and Advertising in Capitalist Society, Polity Press, 1986.

Giovanni Matteucci (a cura di), Elementi per un’estetica del contemporaneo, Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2018 [Introduzione, pp. 5-22; Pratiche, pp. 97-105; Spazi di consumo, pp. 163-170]

Alessandro Bellan (a cura di), Teorie della reificazione. Storia e attualità di un fenomeno sociale. Milano: Mimesis 2013

Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, Teorie del feticismo, Milano 1985.

Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, Studi su Karl Marx. La cooperazione, l'individuo sociale, le merci, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2018.

Georg Simmel, Stile Moderno. Saggi di estetica sociale, a cura di B. Carnevali e A. Pinotti, Einaudi, Torino 2020. [L’Esposizione berlinese delle arti e dell’industria pp. 388-393].

David Frisby, Frammenti di modernità. Simmel, Benjamin, Kracauer, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1992

Gilles Lipovetsky e Jean Serroy, L'estetizzazione del mondo. Vivere nell'era del capitalismo artistico, Sellerio, Palermo, 2017.

Marshall Berman, L’esperienza della modernità, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1985.

Cristoph Türcke, La società eccitata, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2012.

Pierre Bourdieu, La distinzione critica sociale del gusto, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2000.

Jean Baudrillard, La sparizione dell’arte¸ Abscondita, Milano, 2012.

Gernot Böhme Critique of aesthetic capitalism, Mimesis international, 2017.

Matteo Giovanni Brega, L’estetizzazione del quotidiano, Mimesis, Milano, 2012.

Bibliography may be subject to change.

Teaching methods

lecture and collective reading of the texts, following the seminar model.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral exam for both attending and non-attending students, according to the following procedures:

ATTENDING STUDENTS

(Students who have attended at least 70% of the lessons, or 11 lessons out of 15, will be considered attending students)

The exam will cover all mandatory texts (which will be discussed in class) and one of the texts of choice listed in the bibliography.

Students will have the opportunity to carry out a small research project on a case study analysed through concepts, categories and authors addressed in the course, to be presented to the class. The presentation will be evaluated and will contribute to the final grade, exempting students from a portion of the exam to be agreed with the teacher.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

The exam's programm will have to be agreed individually and should cover all mandatory texts, two of the texts of choice listed in the bibliography, and the reading of one introductory text to be agreed upon with the teacher.

Teaching tools

Panopto and digital resources

Office hours

See the website of Rolando Vitali