The aim of this course is to reflect on the nature of artistic experience and its relationship with theory. Drawing upon the field of aesthetics that seeks to reveal the experiential dimension of practice, perception and interpretation, the course introduces students to the phenomenological tradition in order to show its relevance to understanding the nature of art. In this context, phenomenology should not be viewed simply as a dogmatic theoretical framework, but rather as an approach for disclosing the artistic from a variety of perspectives whether personalist, existential, ontological, hermeneutic, ethical, or dialogical. Each seminar will examine specific works, whether visual, musical, or textual.
Lectures
Intentionality and the Making of Art (Edmund Husserl)
I and Thou, or the Interpreter and the Artwork (Martin Buber)
Creative Fidelity in Art Practices (Gabriel Marcel)
Being, Dwelling, and the Artworld (Martin Heidegger)
The Person, the Community, and the Artist (Emmanuel Mounier)
Manifestation, Art and Event (Michel Henry)
Aesthetic Experience (Mikel Dufrenne)
Perception and the Stylisation of the World through Art (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)
Alterity and Arterity (Emmanuel Lévinas)
Art between Interpretation and Conflict (Paul Ricoeur)
Being Given and Givenness in Artistic Experience (Jean-Luc Marion)
Appeal and Response between painting and the spectator (Jean-Louis Chrétien)