805 - Masters Centre of the Department of Political and Social Sciences
32257 - Political Theory in the 21st Century
Chiara Bottici
Contents
Session 1.
Introduction and distribution of oral presentations.
Berger, J. “Ways of Seeing,” Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wi8jd7aC4
Session 2.
Images beyond imagination: introduction and distribution of the oral presentations.
- Bottici, C. 2014. Imaginal Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Intro, Ch. 1, 2, 3
Session 3.
Who banned the image from the virtuous city? The visible versus the intelligible.
Readings:
From Plato. 1991. The Republic, trans. Alan Bloom. New York: Basic Books
- Book VI, 509c-511e (on the different types of knowledge expressed through the metaphor of the line)
- Book VII 514a-521c (on the myth of the cave)
- Book X (on mimesis, the ban of the arts, and the power of philosophy beyond death)
Images:
Ancient Greek sculpture, Ancient Greek architecture
Berger, J. “Ways of Seeing,” Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wi8jd7aC4
Session 4.
The political aesthetics of glory between savages and civilized: imagination as decaying sense and its passions (fear, glory, competition)
Readings:
Hobbes, T. Leviathan. 2012 [1651]. New York: Penguin Classics, Introduction, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
Class Video Screening:
Berger, J. “Ways of Seeing,” Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wi8jd7aC4
Images:
Vermeer, Hals, or other Dutch oil paintings; Comparison of the two frontispieces of Hobbes’s Leviathan, seventeenth-century images of the “savages vs civilized” and the “discovery” of the “new world”.
Session 5.
The coloniality of images: Black Skin, White Masks
Readings:
- Fanon, F. Black Skin, White Masks, New York: Grove Press (all, except Ch 5)
Images:
Concerning violence, Ethnic fetishes, Daniel Horowitz’s Totem sans taboo series.
Session 6
Images in the age of mechanical reproduction
Readings:
- Benjamin, W. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
- Pedulla, G. 2012, In Broad Light: Movies and Spectators After Cinema, verso, Ch 2, 3, 4
Images:
August Sander, Alexander Rodchenko, Eugene Atget, Karl Blossfelt, Germaine Krull, silent movies.
Class Video Screening:
Berger, J. “Ways of Seeing,” Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTUebm73IY
Session 7.
Images as operations.
Readings:
- Ranciere, J. 2007. The Future of the Image, trans. G. Elliott. London: Verso Books, pp. 1-31
- Hito Steryl, “In defence of the poor image”
- Lafia, M. 2017. Everyday Cinema. New York: Punctum Press
https://punctumbooks.com/titles/everyday-cinema-the-films-of-marc-lafia/
Images:
Marc Lafia Everyday Cinema
8. Imaginal politics
Readings:
- Bottici, C. 2014. Imaginal Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Ch. 4, 5, 6
Images:
Modern political maps, planisphere; Orientalist painters, Occidentalist vignettes, Disney’s Aladdin, The Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (but consider whether it is legitimate to show them in class, given that for believers this is very offensive; an alternative could be describe them, without showing)
Session 9.
The myth of the clash of civilizations
Readings:
- Bottici, C and Challand, B. The Myth of the Clash of Civilisations, London, Routledge, Intro+Ch. 1, 2, 4, 5
Images:
Orientalist painters, Occidentalist vignettes, Disney’s Aladdin, The Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (but consider whether it is legitimate to show them in class, given that for believers this is very offensive; an alternative could be describe them, without showing)
Session 10
Myth and icons of Europe
Readings:
Bottici, C. and Challand, B. 2013, Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory, Identity, Cambridge University Press, Intro + Ch. 1, 2, 4
Images:
Icons of the European Union, Euro symbols, Flags, Hymn and other acoustic images.