GPHI 6618 -

Institution:

The New School

Subject:

Description:

The Democratic Public and Its Aesthetic Fall 2008. Three credits. Juliane Rebentisch The seminar takes a closer look at a critical discourse which links the critique of "aestheticization" of politics with a critique of democracy-or with a critiquof what is held to be its decay. For the process of "aestheticization" is taken toundermine the orientation of political culture to normativity; it is supposed to turn the democratic public into a mere mass. Against the backdrop of a long tradition reaching back into discussions in antiquity about theatrocracy and rhetoric, the seminar will investigate the implications of this discourse for a theory of democracy. How is the crisis, diagnosed by its different variants, described What notion of the aesthetic is therefore required Which idea of the political is assumed And is the opposition between the aesthetic and the political, presumed by this discourse of crisis, even plausible Are the issues that are being discussed under the rubric of the aesthetic indeed external to the political, or is it on the contrary that what is being rejected as aesthetic has political origins If the latter is the case, does this imply that what is being criticized as "aestheticization" should be thought of less as an externalinfluence than as a constitutive element of democracy

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.newschool.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 229-5600

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

The Course Profile information is provided and updated by third parties including the respective institutions. While the institutions are able to update their information at any time, the information is not independently validated, and no party associated with this website can accept responsibility for its accuracy.