Four Yes or No Questions

1. Should art represent reality?

2. Can a work of art fail?

3. Is there such a thing as avant-garde art?

4. Does some art contribute more to progress than others?

Syllabus

Rhetoric 103B: Postmarxist Aesthetics and Politics

Tues/Thurs: 5-6.30, 106 Stanley;
Instructor: Dale Carrico: dalec@berkeley.edu,
Office Hours: Tues. 2-4pm. Dwinelle, and by Appointment.

Breakdown of Grade:

Precis/Co-facilitation 15%
Mid-term 30%
Final 35%
Attendance/Participation 20%

JANUARY

WEEK 1
22 Intro/Course Syllabus-Policies-Administrivia
24 Intro/Course Themes

WEEK 2
29 Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism
31 Marx, Fetishism of Commodities

FEBRUARY

WEEK 3
5 Klein, No Logo
Part One
Part Two
7 Debord, Society of the Spectacle

WEEK 4
12 Benjamin, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
14 Adorno/Horkheimer, Culture Industry

WEEK 5
19 Barthes, Mythologies
21 Barthes, Mythologies

WEEK 6
26 Harris, "The Futuristic"
28 Mercer, "Reading Racial Fetishism"

MARCH

WEEK 7
4 Bloch, "Expressionism," Lukacs, "Realism in the Balance"
6 Brecht, "Against Lukacs," Benjamin, "Brecht," Adorno, "Benjamin"

WEEK 8
11 Screening Bunuel, "The Milky Way"
13 Screening Bunuel, "The Milky Way"

WEEK 9
18 Discussion of Bunuel
20 In-Class Mid-Term Examination

WEEK 10
25 Spring Break
27 Spring Break

APRIL

WEEK 11
1 Frith, "At Ideology and Pop Practice," Breton/Rivera, "Manifesto"
3 Chambers, "Urban Culture and the Avant-Garde," Miller "Material Memories"

WEEK 12
8 Winterson, "Art Objects"
10 Brown, "Thing Theory"

WEEK 13
15 Riskin, "The Defecating Duck"
17 Bruno Latour, "Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam"

WEEK 14
22 Scribner, "Joseph Beuys"
24 Chow, "Fateful Attachments"
WEEK 15
29 Haraway, A Manifesto for Cyborgs

MAY

1 Haraway, Promises of Monsters

WEEK 16
6 Final Exam Due