87334 - Sociology of Arts (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student: moving from a critical review of classical and contemporary studies, is provided with a set of tools (concepts, models, theories and paradigms) useful for thinking sociologically the arts (visual, musical, performative ones); knows and is able to discuss art production and consumption, the social phenomenology of taste, art classifications, art evaluation, artistic movements, and the relationships between arts and social movements.

Course contents

Why a "sociology" of art (indeed, of the arts) and what can sociology do to art and with art? Is there a need for sociology to know and understand art? And which art or, rather, which arts? What relationships with other knowledge on art can sociology maintain in order not to lose its own identity? These are the questions the course will try to answer by proposing a path made of stories, concepts and images through a review of sociological approaches to studying the fine, popular, and folk arts.
Exploring how art is created, evaluated, distributed, received, and consumed, the course features both classic work (e.g. Marx, Weber, Simmel, Adorno, Warburg, Kracauer, Gombrich, Hauser etc.) and new (e.g. Becker, Bourdieu, Dimaggio, Elias, Williams, Hall etc.) approaches in the sociology of the arts - including popular music, film, drama, romance novels, visual arts, and classical music. The course offers arguments for addressing with a sociological imagination the meaning of artistic objects and consider why interpretations of art vary intersecting with race, gender, sexuality, and class.

The course includes a seminar portion (three to five lectures) in which students are asked to actively participate (as individuals or in small groups) in putting the sociological approach into practice with a public presentation devoted to the analysis of a work of art (to be identified).

Readings/Bibliography

V. Alexander, Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms, Oxford, Blackwell, 2020 (2nd ed.)

S. Thornton, Seven days in the art world, New York, Norton 2008.

Teaching methods

Lectures with moments of seminar discussion on topics of the course starting from the reading of selected texts

Assessment methods

Oral exam (usually 3 questions on topics of the course and in any case on the texts in the program)

Teaching tools

Texts in pdf format uploaded on the online platform of the course; teaching support videos; course slides (available at the end of the lessons)

Office hours

See the website of Marco Santoro