AJ24059 From Catharsis to Kitsch: Taste, Judgment, and the Degradation of Beauty

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2000
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: k (colloquium), z (credit).
Teacher(s)
James Soderholm, Ph.D. (lecturer), Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Michaela Hrazdílková
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This is a course on modern aesthetics, beginning with Kant and ending with Iris Murdoch and Richard Rorty. As we augur the meaning of taste, judgment and the fortunes and misfortunes of 'the beautiful', we shall inform our discussion by reading works by Burke, Johnson, Hume, de Stael, Keats, Wordworth, Pater, Wilde, Nietzsche, Calinescu, Lynes, Benjamin, Sontag, Kundera, and Havel. We will also begin in Plato's Cave, examine Aristotle's Poetics, and see selections from movies in order to enrich our discussion of the nature of beauty, the subjec-tivist dilemma involved in judging it, and the declension of beauty into the aesthetic lie called "kitsch." We want to understand the meaning and consequence of bad taste even as we struggle to affirm the integrity of good taste as a civilizing force in our lives. And if there is an American Beauty, we must try to understand both the irony of its beauty and the beauty of its irony.
Assessment methods (in Czech)
Assessment: Students will be asked to keep a journal of responses to the required reading; these entries will often form the basis of class discussion. A long essay will be required at the end of term.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2002.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2000, recent)
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