Readings
Recommended Text
Arendt, Hannah. The Promise of Politics. New York: Schocken Books, 2005.
Required seminar readings have been placed on reserve in the music library.
Course Readings Schedule
Oct 3 Aesthetics, Taste and Social Distinction
Oct 10 The Promise of Politics (1)
Readings:
Hannah Arendt, The Promise of Politics ( New York: Schocken Books, 2005), pp. 5-92 .
Oct 17 The Promise of Politics (2)
Readings:
Hannah Arendt, The Promise of Politics, pp. 93-204.
Oct 24 SEM Conference
Oct 31 Aesthetics and Politics
Readings:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 1969).
Theodor W. Adorno, “On the Fetish Character of Music and the Regression in Listening,” The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J. M. Bernstein (London: Routledge, 1991).
Theodor W. Adorno, “Commitment,” in Theodor Adorno et al., Aesthetics and Politics (London: Verso, 1977).
Ernst Bloch and Theodor W. Adorno, “Something’s Missing: A Discussion between Ernst Block and Theodor W. Adorno on the Contradictions of Utopian Longing,” in Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function of Art and Literature, trans. Jack Zipes and Frank Mecklenburg (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988).
Nov 7 Society for Ricoeur Studies Conference
Nov 14 Social Distinctions and the Field of Cultural Production
Readings:
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed” and “The Historical Genesis of a Pure Aesthetic,” The Field of Cultural Production (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
Pierre Bourdieu, “Part I: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste” and “Conclusion: Classes and Classifications,” Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984).
Nov 21 Bildung [CMS Conference]
Readings:
Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Transcending the Aesthetic Dimension,” Truth and Method. 2nd revised ed., trans. revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (New York: Crossroads, 1991).
Nov 28 Culture and Politics
Readings:
Hannah Arendt, “Culture and Politics,” Reflections on Literature and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007).
Hannah Arendt, “The Crisis in Culture: Its Social and Political Significance,” Between Past and Future (New York: Penguin Books, 1977).
Hannah Arendt, “Truth and Politics,” Between Past and Future.
Dec 5 Aesthetic Judgment/Political Judgment
Readings:
Hannah Arendt, Eleventh and Twelfth Sessions and “Imagination” from Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, ed. Ronald Beiner (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982).
Paul Ricoeur, “Aesthetic Judgment and Political Judgment According to Hannah Arendt,” The Just, trans. David Pellauer (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Paul Ricoeur, “Aesthetic Experience,” Critique and Conviction, trans. Kathleen Blamey (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
Dec 11 Papers due.