Political Science 255 - Aesthetic Concepts

Day-to-day experiences of the lovely, the playful, the zany, the uncanny, and the mysterious encode an intricate sociality and politics. This course explores their potentialities and powers of these experiences. How do these experiences animate society and mesh with elements of critical reason, performance, and the market? What alternative kinds of pleasure and desire come to light? What other categories are urgent today? Readings in contemporary political and aesthetic theory in multiple traditions. Students will be invited to delve into the politics of their favorite categories in their work for the course.

Fall semester. Karl Loewenstein Fellow Roelofs.