The spectre of radical aesthetics in the work of Jacques Rancière
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University of Pretoria
Abstract
This study aims to determine what is left of the philosophical belief in art’s
potential to bring about social emancipation and change early in the 21st
century. It does so by critically assessing one of the most elaborate, emphatic
and influential contemporary re-assertions of this potential by French
philosopher Jacques Rancière. It focuses on three components of Rancière’s
writings on aesthetics and politics that are key to such an evaluation. First, his
affirmation of an emancipatory core at the heart of Idealist-Romanticist
aesthetics, the aesthetic works of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich von Schiller
in particular. Second, his reconceptualization of autonomous and
heteronomous forms of political art in the modern era. Third, his critical
analyses of dominant tendencies within political art from the 1960s until
today and his own proposals for a truly emancipatory contemporary art
practice.
With regard to the first component, the project problematizes Rancière’s
return to aesthetics mainly by comparing it with theories recently articulated
by other radical Leftist thinkers. It concerns theories that emphasize the
contradictory political status of aesthetics as both reactionary and liberating
(Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson) or point to a constitutive, original violence
at its heart (Dave Beech & John Roberts). Based on this, I argue that
Rancière’s redemptive approach toward aesthetics is too one-dimensional,
resulting in an overly positive assessment of the emancipatory value of
traditional conceptions of aesthetics.
In relation to the second key aspect of Rancière’s political aesthetics, I
demonstrate how he offers a typically third way solution to the problematic of
art’s autonomy and heteronomy. He does so by integrating some of the most
complex twentieth century theorizations of both autonomous (Theodor
Adorno) and heteronomous positions (Peter Bürger) into a dialectical working
model. I argue that, regrettably, Rancière hereby also takes on board deeply
tragic views on art’s political potential, resulting in an overcautious stance
towards radically heteronomous art practices. Apart from critiquing him on
this score, I point to alternative conceptualizations of art’s autonomy and
heteronomy more suited to thinking the key characteristics and political
potential of contemporary radicalized art. As to Rancière’s critique of recent political art practices and his proposed
alternative, I find it to be driven by a misguided attempt at conceiving the
radical political potential of art in purely aesthetic terms to the neglect of other
functions traditionally taken up by political artists such as representation and
activism. I contend that not only can such a purist view on art’s politics not be
upheld in fact - which even holds for Rancière’s own, alternative aesthetic
politics of art - neither is it desirable if one wants to devise a robust and
versatile theoretical framework for thinking contemporary politicized art. I do
so by pointing to the radical political value of representational artistic
strategies, as well as artistic practices that engage in activities beyond those
traditionally associated with art.
Description
Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
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UCTD
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Pauwels, MFA 2015, The spectre of radical aesthetics in the work of Jacques Rancière, DPhil Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/50758>