University of Kent

Description

In this module we will be focusing on philosophical questions about literature, the visual and performed arts and music. What is art? What is it to appreciate and understand art? How can we talk of the truth, form or meaning of a work when there is room for scepticism about our very capacity to know that we have understood it? Are 'readings' a matter of our culturally and personally determined tastes? Can artists' intentions offer a secure anchorage or only the illusion of one?

This module will approach these questions in the knowledge that, while traditional to philosophical aesthetics, they are live questions in the production and reception of contemporary art and bones of contention in literary theory and in the study of music, film, the pictorial arts and theatre.  The module will therefore be suited both to students interested in Philosophy and to students seeking to explore the foundation of other disciplines in the Humanities.

Lecture topics will include the following: Art as representation; Art as expression; Art as form; The problem of interpretation; Critical evaluation; Art, morality and truth. 

Reading

The basic text will be Anne Sheppard, Aesthetics (Oxford University Press).

Literary texts to be studied:

Leo Tolstoy             The Death of Ivan Illych
Henry James          The Turn of the Screw
Samuel Beckett      Waiting for Godot

Factsheet

Credits	15 (7.5 ECTS)
Level	Certificate
Term	Autumn
Assessment	100% coursework. (90% 2 in-class assignments; 10% seminar performance)
Contact Hours	1 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar per week