FRUITION OF ART AND COMMUNICATION

As part of the Master's Degree in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities, this course aims to develop a critical awareness of notions such as taste, aesthetic experience, disinterest in appreciation of the arts and cultural consumption, by considering some main philosophical problems inhering these notions as well as their historical and socio-cultural implications. The aim of the course is to allow a careful use of these conceptual tools by future operators in the management of arts and cultural activities.

Conoscenza e capacità di comprensione: Il corso si propone di illustrare l'esperienza di fruizione di opere d'arte e di prodotti culturali alla luce del concetto di abito, di comportamento in generale e di consumo di beni culturali, articolati nella filosofia pragmatista di John Dewey, nella sociologia di Bourdieu e nella teoria economica di Veblen.
Conoscenza e capacità di comprensione applicate: Gli studenti dovrebbero acquisire la capacità di orientarsi autonomamente nei testi sull'argomento, di usare in maniera consapevole i concetti fondamentali introdotti, di articolare le ragioni che li sostengono.
Autonomia di giudizio: L'insegnamento si prefigge di fornire gli strumenti per una considerazione critica della fruizione artistica e del consumo culturale più in generale alla luce dei testi considerati e delle posizioni illustrate. Alla fine del corso gli studenti dovrebbero acquisire le abilità comunicative richieste per ricostruire i termini principali della questione e per sostenere le loro valutazioni sulle diverse forme di consumo culturale.

Students should have passed the exam of Aesthetics I during their Bachelor Degree and/or they have to know the most basic elements characterizing Immanuel Kant's aesthetics.

What are the kinds of experience we usually have of works of arts and cultural products?
Are they usual, ordinary experiences or are they completely peculiar ones?
When we are selecting something to see or to listen to, do our decisions take place in complete autonomy and by avoiding any kind of private interest or are they influenced by the social and cultural environment we belong to?
Should we speak about aesthetic experience or should we more concretely consider habits of behavior and consumption?
The course will pose these kinds of questions and will try to find some answers to them by means of Veblen's and Bourdieu's books, as well as through Dewey's and Mead's texts.

P.Bourdieu, Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (the following Chapters: I, III, IV, V, VIII, IX)
J.Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct (the following Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 17).
G.H.Mead, The Nature of Aesthetic Experience
T.Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, the following chapters: "Conspicuous Consumption" and "The Pecunary Canons of Taste"

The written examination will be composed of a short list of open questions (4/6) focusing the main subjects of the requested texts. The exam will take 2 hours.
The exam will evaluate if the students have acquired the knowledge delivered in the course, their capacity to give reasons, their ability in communicating the different positions with critical awareness.

Frontal lessons and reading of the texts.

Italian

Those students who cannot attend the course can find an introduction to the general approach adopted during the lessons in Roberta Dreon's essay, John Dewey: l'abito fa il naturlismo culturale, in Bollettino Filosofico XXVI (2010), pp.169-182. For any further more specific needs they can contact the teacher.

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This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development