74840 - Aesthetics of Fashion (1)

Learning outcomes

The main objective of the course is to provide essential tools for a critical understanding of the intertwinement of cultural, creative and productive processes in arts and fashion. Central issues are the structures of communicative praxis linked to taste and the constitution of personal identity. At the end of the course the student has a sufficient awareness of the contextualization of fashion in contemporary cultural reality and the analysis of the communication mediated by aesthetic symbolic forms.

Course contents

Title.

 Fashion, Popular Music, Lifestyle.

The course will explore some contemporary transformations of aesthetics starting from the overcoming of the traditional paradigm centered on the system of fine arts. In this perspective two cultural forms will be taken into exam, namely fashion and popular music, both of which are extremely influential on our everyday life and the shaping of our lifestyle, and also related to each other and usually (but wrongly) neglected by traditional aesthetics.

The bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lecture course.

Readings/Bibliography

1) E. Wilson, Vestirsi di sogni. Moda e modernità, Franco Angeli, Milano 2008, only pp. 15-28, 60-79 e 192-219: respectively

- “Introduzione”;

- Chap. 3: “Giustificare la moda”;

- Chap. 9: “L’abbigliamento di opposizione”.

2) G. Matteucci, Estetica della moda, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2017.

3) D. Ferdori and S. Marino (ed.), Filosofia e popular music. Da Zappa ai Beach Boys, dai Doors agli U2, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2013, solo pp. 7-44 e 69-147: respectively

- “Introduzione”;

- “La musica come forma di conoscenza. Considerazioni sull’estetica musicale di Theodor W. Adorno e l’opera di Frank Zappa”, by S. Marino;

- “Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin e Michel Foucault. Vita, morte ed estetica dell’esistenza”, by A. Ricciotti;

- “Cuore e anima. Il conflitto tra ‘eros’ e ‘agape’ nei testi di Joy Division e U2”, by D. Ferdori;

- “Finire il lavoro. La ‘Second Summer of Love’ (1988-90)”, by M. Palma.

4) A. Mecacci, Dopo Warhol. Il pop, il postmoderno, l’estetica diffusa, Donzelli, Roma 2017, only pp. 79-105.

N.B.
The students who will attend the lecture "Il tardo Novecento: la diffusione dell’estetico" in the context of the Seminar "Culture del Novecento" on January 23, 2019 (see the entire program of the Seminar on the homepage of the Degree Course) won't have to study this last text (point 4 of the Bibliography).

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures.

Assessment methods

The final exam may consist:

either of a written test on some texts examined during the lessons followed by an oral exam on the other texts (type 1);

or exclusively of an oral exam on all texts included in the Bibliography (type 2).

The written test is not mandatory but simply optional, and it is made up of a certain number of different questions, such as both "closed" and "open" questions.

In case of Type 1 of exam, the final oral exam will cover the parts not tested in the intermediate examination.

The examination must ensure the achievement of the following objectives:

- knowledge of the main conceptual contents of the texts examined;

- comprehension of the meaning of the concepts learned in relation to the concrete phenomena taken into account;

- general orientation concerning the characteristics of the contemporary aesthetic culture.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Marino