Aesthetics Rhetoric

Tu/Th 12:30pm-2:00pm, Etcheverry 3119 /// 

Study of the terms and means by which we make and defend judgments involving the exercise of aesthetic sensitivity or perceptiveness. Consideration of the relationship between aesthetic qualities and aesthetic value. Discussion of aesthetic criticism as the means by which the capacities and salience of works of art are called to our attention and brought into focus. Topics include questions of taste, expression, and affect.

This course examines the theory and practice of iconoclasm as manifested in and across fields including, but not limited to, public art, political discourse, and critical theory. In so doing, we will attempt to understand what, (paraphrasing Bruno Latour), makes images the focus of so much passion, to the point where destroying them is often seen as the ultimate in creativity. In short, we will seek to understand iconoclasm as a rhetorical activity in which the making and breaking of images plays a central role.