Course detail

Aesthetics 2 – Outline of the 20th Century Aesthetics

FaVU-1EST-2Acad. year: 2023/2024

The Aesthetics 1-4 course series offers students a comprehensive overview of the tradition and present of aesthetic thinking in a broader cultural context. The primary focus is on the philosophy of art, but the series also includes an explanation of basic aesthetic categories (aesthetic experience, aesthetic attitude, aesthetic object, aesthetic function, norm, quality, value, taste, beauty, ugliness, the sublime), an introduction to issues of non-art aesthetics (aesthetics of nature, applied art, design, popular and mass culture, aesthetics of the everyday), or topics in the theory of individual art forms, media theory, and visual culture studies. In addition to philosophical conceptions of art and aesthetics, approaches from other humanities disciplines (psychology, sociology, anthropology, visual studies, gender studies, critical race theory) are also considered. Over the course of the four-semester cycle, students will gradually become familiar with the interpretation of the issues from both historical and systematic perspectives.  

Aesthetics 2 offers a historical and thematic overview of approaches in art theory and aesthetic thinking in the "wider" 20th century – from the birth of basic modern aesthetic concepts in the 19th century to their reverberations and critical revision at the beginning of the 21st century. 

 

 

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

doc. Mgr. Václav Magid

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

None.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

The following conditions are set for the granting of the examination:

  • active participation in class (75 % participation) or its replacement by written research of the missed material to the extent agreed with the teacher;
  • a short oral presentation on a chosen topic from the material covered during the semester.
 

Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (3 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teacher.

 

Aims

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the main trends in 20th century aesthetics. Students will gain a basic overview of the problems, concepts and personalities of European philosophy of that period, with an emphasis on the thematization of art and the aesthetic.

 

Students will gain an orientation in the basic concepts of 20th century art and aesthetics against the background of the history of modern philosophy and general cultural history.

 

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Guido MORPURGO-TAGLIABUE, Současná estetika. Praha: Odeon, 1985.
Mario PERNIOLA, Estetika 20. století, Praha: Karolinum, 2000.

Recommended reading

Theodor W. ADORNO, Estetická teorie, Praha: Panglos 1997.
Theodor W. ADORNO – Max HORKHEIMER, Dialektika osvícenství, Praha: OIKOYMENH 2009.
Walter BENJAMIN, „Umělecké dílo ve věku své technické reprodukovatelnosti“, in: Výbor z díla I. Literárněvědné studie, Praha: OIKOYMENH 2009, s. 299–326.
Petr A. BÍLEK, „Socialistický realismus a avantgarda“, in: Josef VOJVODÍK – Jan WIENDL (eds.), Heslář české avantgardy. Estetické koncepty a proměny uměleckých postupů v letech 1908–1958, Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze – TOGGA 2011.
John BERGER, „Způsoby pohledu“, in: Pavel ZAHRÁDKA (ed.), Estetika na přelomu milénia. Vybrané problémy současné estetiky, Brno: Barrister & Principal 2010, s. 431–443.
Tomáš KULKA – Denis CIPORANOV (eds.), Co je umění? Texty angloamerické estetiky 20. století, Červený Kostelec: Pavel Mervart 2010.
Terry EAGLETON, „Ideologie estetična“, in: Pavel ZAHRÁDKA (ed.), Estetika na přelomu milénia. Vybrané problémy současné estetiky, Brno: Barrister & Principal 2010, s. 301–311.
Josef FULKA, Psychoanalýza a francouzské myšlení, Praha: Herrmann & synové 2008.
Boris GROYS, Gesamtkunstwerk Stalin. Komunistické postskriptum, Praha: AVU 2010.
Miroslav LAMAČ (ed.), Myšlenky moderních malířů, Praha: Nakladatelství československých výtvarných umělců, 1968.
Peter LAMARQUE – Stein Haugom OLSEN (eds.), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: the Analytic Tradition: an Anthology, Malden: Blackwell, 2004.
György LUKÁCS, Umění jako sebepoznání lidstva, Praha: Odeon 1976.
Herta NAGL-DOCEKAL, Feministická filozofie. Výsledky, problémy, perspektivy, Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství 2007, kap. 2 „Umění a ženskost“, s. 101–175.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM_B Bachelor's, 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory

  • Programme VUB Bachelor's

    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, summer semester, compulsory

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Václav Maxmilián, Ph.D.

Syllabus

  1. Vitalistic and psychologizing conceptions of art at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Nietzsche. Expressivism – Tolstoy, Collingwood. Psychoanalysis and art. Freud, Jung.
  2. Formalist conceptions of art forms and modernism. Hanslick, Herbart, Bell, Fry, Russian literary formalism. Greenberg and the specificity of the medium.
  3. Art and the aesthetic through the lens of structuralism and semiotics. Conceptual foundations (Saussure, Peirce) and their application to art and aesthetics (Mukařovský, Barthes).
  4. Phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics in philosophy and aesthetics. Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Gadamer.
  5. Aesthetics and art in Anglophone pragmatic and analytic philosophy. Dewey, Santayna, Sibley, Goodman.
  6. The debate over the definition of art in analytic philosophy and institutional art theory. Weitz, Danto, Dickie, Levinson, Gaut.
  7. Anti-art in the aesthetics of Western Marxism – avant-garde vs. culture industry. Benjamin, Adorno, Bürger, Eco, Huyssen.
  8. Feminist and postcolonial critiques of the canon of European aesthetics. Visual Studies. Berger, Nochlin, Korsmeyer, Said, Hall.
  9. Poststructuralism in philosophy and its influence on art theory and aesthetics. Foucault, Lyotard, Deleuze and Guattari, Baudrillard, Derrida, October.
  10. Theories of Postmodernism. Lyotard, Jameson.
  11. Beyond Postmodernism. The thematization of art and the aesthetic in turn-of-the-millennium philosophy. New materialism, speculative realism, posthumanism.
  12. Student presentations and discussions of topics discussed during the semester.