Aesthetics
Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: CHIARA MILITELLOExpected Learning Outcomes
This course explores the history of aesthetic to the present day. The course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the discipline of aesthetics and philosophy of art, with particular reference to the historical development of the subject and its relation to the arts, literature, music, cinema and photography. At the end of the course, students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts and methods of aesthetics and philosophy of art. Students will gain an understanding of the nature of beauty, art, and philosophy; they will also be introduced to the central questions of aesthetics.
Course Structure
The teaching will be carried out through lectures, a method that will ensure the transmission of contents and methods. In order to achieve the objectives relating to learning and communication skills, questions for clarification and deepening by the students will be encouraged during the lessons.
Required Prerequisites
No prior knowledge is required.
Attendance of Lessons
Class attendance is strongly recommended, because the exposition of philosophical theories by the professor greatly facilitates the acquisition of the contents by the students.
Detailed Course Content
The definition of aesthetics. How to navigate the world of aesthetics. The common view on ugliness. The manifestations of ugliness through the ages. The richness and unpredictability of ugliness. Nightmares, terrors and loves. Repulsion and compassion. The rejection of deformity. Decadent ecstasy. Violations of the classical canon. Demons, madmen and perturbing presences. Deformity and the sublime.
Textbook Information
1. Sergio Givone, Prima lezione di estetica, Laterza 2012, 164 pages.
2. On Ugliness, edited by Umberto Eco, Harvill Secker/Rizzoli USA 2007, 455 pages.
2. On Ugliness, edited by Umberto Eco, Harvill Secker/Rizzoli USA 2007, 455 pages.
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where to begin the study of aesthetics? | 1 (parte prima, cap. 1) |
| 2 | The aesthetic experience | 1 (parte prima, cap. 2) |
| 3 | Art: making and/or knowing? | 1 (parte prima, cap. 3) |
| 4 | The enigma of beauty | 1 (parte prima, cap. 4) |
| 5 | Absent truth as a source of illumination | 1 (parte prima, cap. 5) |
| 6 | Philosophy and poetry | 1 (parte seconda, cap. 1) |
| 7 | Philosophy and music | 1 (parte seconda, cap. 2) |
| 8 | Philosophy and painting | 1 (parte seconda, cap. 3) |
| 9 | Philosophy and cinema | 1 (parte seconda, cap. 4) |
| 10 | Ugliness in the Classical World | 2 (chapter 1) |
| 11 | Passion, Death, Martyrdom | 2 (chapter 2) |
| 12 | The Apocalypse, Hell, and the Devil | 2 (chapter 3) |
| 13 | Monsters and Portents | 2 (chapter 4) |
| 14 | The Ugly, the Comic, and the Obscene | 2 (chapter 5) |
| 15 | The Ugliness of Woman from Antiquity to the Baroque Period | 2 (chapter 6) |
| 16 | The Devil in the Modern World | 2 (chapter 7) |
| 17 | Witchcraft, Satanism, Sadism | 2 (chapter 8) |
| 18 | Physica curiosa | 2 (chapter 9) |
| 19 | Romanticism and the Redemption of Ugliness | 2 (chapter 10) |
| 20 | The Uncanny | 2 (chapter 11) |
| 21 | Iron Towers and Ivory Towers | 2 (chapter 12) |
| 22 | The Avant-Garde and the Triumph of Ugliness | 2 (chapter 13) |
| 23 | The Ugliness of Others, Kitsch, and Camp | 2 (chapter 14) |
| 24 | Ugliness Today | 2 (chapter 15) |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Oral examination, assessed on the basis of the following elements: relevance of the answers to the questions asked (necessary to pass the exam); content quality, ability to connect the various parts of the course, proper philosophical language, overall expressive skills (all these elements contribute to the final evaluation, provided that the answers are relevant).
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
What does aesthetic experience mean?
Why did Deleuze state that montage is a specifically philosophical problem?
How was ugliness viewed in the classical world?
What is the difference between camp and kitsch?
Why did Deleuze state that montage is a specifically philosophical problem?
How was ugliness viewed in the classical world?
What is the difference between camp and kitsch?