Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0267 - The Aesthetics of Waste

Is beauty useless, or does art serve a (moral) purpose? The role of art in Western culture has often been under debate, especially with the rise of literacy, accessibility, and democratization that came in the period of industrialization. These questions are particularly pertinent now in the ongoing debate over liberal arts education and the future of the humanities. This course will combine readings in aesthetic philosophy with literary works to investigate the way art figures in a society of consumption. We will ask whether art can serve the role of preservation formerly afforded to religion in a secularized world, or if it disrupts economies of sufficiency. In addition, we will look at the politics of representation in the Western tradition that privileges certain bodies and ignores others. Finally, we will interrogate the process of interpretation itself as it relates to the preservation of cultural products. Our readings will begin with Symbolism and Decadence and move through Modernism and contemporary works. Authors may include Schiller, Ruskin, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Wilde, Mauss, Bataille, Eliot, Genet, Pynchon, Duras, Derrida, and Mbembe.

Independent Work Writing and Research Multiple Cultural Perspectives