90862 - Elements of Contemporary Aesthetics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has the basic tools for interpreting the symbolic and productive processes that characterize today’s aesthetic field. He/she can contextualize the major aesthetic traditions (from arts to fashion) in the framework of last century’s culture. He/she also acquires the conceptual tools enabling him/her to understand and analyze communication through aesthetic categories and current key issues about taste, social roles and personal identity.

Course contents

Introduction to the Aesthetics of Commodities: Fetishism and Aestheticization in Consumer Society

The course aims to provide some fundamental conceptual and historical tools in order to understanding the contemporary transformations of the aesthetic field and the sensuous perception. Starting from the analysis of the commodity form, its aesthetic specificities and its social function, the lecture will deepen in particular the ideas of some of the most significant authors who have dealt with the transformations of the aesthetics in the consumer society. On the basis of the theoretical contribution of the different authors, in the course we will try to understand the transformations of sensuous and aesthetic experience, also in relation to contemporary phenomena such as fashion, cinema, television, advertising, social networks, etc. More generally, the lecture will focus on the relation between the sphere of consumption, the formation of taste the structure of sensory experience. Within this interpretive framework, a special emphasis will be on the theoretical, practical and political implications of the aestheticization with respect to the processes of individual and social "subjectification".

The course will host a special lecture on April 24 by Anna Nutini on Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of the concepts of fetishism and phantasmagoria in his Arcades Project, with particular focus on his analysis of fashion, world exhibitions, and advertising.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts/Bibliography

Mandatory texts:

Karl Marx, Il Capitale, vol. 1, sez. I, cap. I, La Merce, Einaudi, Torino, 1970, (o altra edizione).

Wolfgang F. Haug, Sulla critica dell'estetica delle merci, traduzione di Fabiola Pontoglio, in: Riccardo Ruschi (a cura di), Estetica tedesca oggi, Edizioni Unicopli, Milano, 1986, pp. 247-69 (online: http://www.wolfgangfritzhaug.inkrit.de/documents/Wae-ital.pdf)

Roberto Fineschi, A tu per tu con «Il capitale», Laterza, 2026.

Texts of choice (one choice mandatory for attendees and non-attendees)

Walter Benjamin, L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Donzelli, 2019.

Walter Benjamin, I «passages» di Parigi, a cura di R. Tiedemann e G. Ganni, Einaudi, Torino, 2 voll., pp. IX-XXXVI (Introduzione di R. Tiedemann), pp. 5-18 (Parigi, la capitale del XIX secolo), pp. 41-86 (Passages, magasins de nouveauté<s>, calicots; Moda), pp. 179-211 (Esposizioni, pubblicità, Grandville), pp. 723-743 (Marx).

Theodor W. Adorno, Il carattere di feticcio in musica e la regressione dell'ascolto, in Id. Dissonanze, Feltrinelli, 1974.

Mandatory texts for non-attendees

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021, Introduzione pp. 13-88.

Depending on the required secondary text selected in the previous section, this will include reading an introductory text about the author:

Stefano Petrucciani, Introduzione ad Adorno, Laterza.

Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin, Il Mulino.

Recommended texts

Guy Debord, La società dello spettacolo, Baldini&Castoldi, 2017.

Roberto Fineschi, A tu per tu con «Il capitale», Laterza, 2026.

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021, Introduzione pp. 13-88.

Rolando Vitali, "Il fascino indiscreto della merce: estetizzazione del quotidiano e feticismo" in: Stefano Marino (a cura di), Estetica, tecnica, politica, Milano, Mimesis, 2022, pp. 47 sgg.

David Harvey, Introduzione al Capitale - 12 lezioni sul primo libro, Casa Usher, 2012, pp. 27-62.

Isabelle Garo, Arte, in Marcello Musto (a cura di), Marx revival. Concetti essenziali e nuove letture, Donzelli, 2019, pp. 401-411.

György Lukács, "La reificazione e la coscienza del proletariato", § 1 in: Id., Storia e coscienza di classe, Mondadori, 1973, pp. 108-143 (o altra edizione).

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di), L’incantesimo del capitale Reificazione e spettacolo, Mimesis, 2023.

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021.

Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Critique of Commodity Aesthetics: Appearance, Sexuality, and Advertising in Capitalist Society, Polity Press, 1986.

Giovanni Matteucci (a cura di), Elementi per un’estetica del contemporaneo, Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2018 [Introduzione, pp. 5-22; Pratiche, pp. 97-105; Spazi di consumo, pp. 163-170]

Alessandro Bellan (a cura di), Teorie della reificazione. Storia e attualità di un fenomeno sociale. Milano: Mimesis 2013

Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, Teorie del feticismo, Milano 1985.

Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, Studi su Karl Marx. La cooperazione, l'individuo sociale, le merci, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2018.

Georg Simmel, Stile Moderno. Saggi di estetica sociale, a cura di B. Carnevali e A. Pinotti, Einaudi, Torino 2020. [L’Esposizione berlinese delle arti e dell’industria pp. 388-393].

David Frisby, Frammenti di modernità. Simmel, Benjamin, Kracauer, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1992

Gilles Lipovetsky e Jean Serroy, L'estetizzazione del mondo. Vivere nell'era del capitalismo artistico, Sellerio, Palermo, 2017.

Marshall Berman, L’esperienza della modernità, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1985.

Cristoph Türcke, La società eccitata, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2012.

Pierre Bourdieu, La distinzione critica sociale del gusto, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2000.

Jean Baudrillard, La sparizione dell’arte¸ Abscondita, Milano, 2012.

Gernot Böhme Critique of aesthetic capitalism, Mimesis international, 2017.

Matteo Giovanni Brega, L’estetizzazione del quotidiano, Mimesis, Milano, 2012.

Bibliography may be subject to change.

Teaching methods

Frontal lecture and collective reading and discussion of the texts, following the seminar model.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

 

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral interview to assess and discuss the subjects covered in the course.

ATTENDING STUDENTS

(students who have attended at least 70% of the lessons, i.e. 11 out of 15 lessons, will be considered attending students)

For attending students, the oral exam will cover all required texts and an in-depth study of one of the authors listed in the bibliography.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

For non-attending students, the exam will cover all required texts and two authors of their choice from the bibliography. Non-attending students must also consult with the teacher to arrange the exam program. The teacher may assign an additional introductory text to be studied if necessary.

Teaching tools

Panopto and digital resources

Office hours

See the website of Rolando Vitali