Description
[G/C] While Anglo-American aesthetics has long focused on detached questions about the nature of art, aesthetic traditions in other parts of the world understand art as being inextricably intertwined with political questions and ideologies. Designed to explore the latter view, this course will begin by providing a solid foundation of neo-Marxist aesthetics that demonstrates the many ways in which our understanding of art both reflects and shapes the political and social context in which it is created. We will use this critical theoretical foundation as a lens through which to examine work created by artists in late- and post-socialist regimes in the second half of the 20th century. The work in question will primarily comprise visual art, but we will also touch on music, theatre, architecture, and film. By the end of the course, students will have a sophisticated understanding of multiple ways in which art has been used to comment on and bring about political and social change in Centr