Course detail

Aesthetics 3 - Topics and Issues in Contemporary Aesthetics

FaVU-1EST-3Acad. year: 2025/2026

The Aesthetics 1-4 course series aims to equip learners with the concepts and strategies to understand their own and others' artistic motivations, intentions, and assumptions. The lectures are conducted in dialogue with the students so that the lecturer can respond to their attitudes and interests, and thus be all the more able to place the attitudes in the context of the tradition of European aesthetic thought, as well as non-European traditions of thought.

Estetika 3 will introduce students to issues that have gained urgency in the last quarter century, not only in aesthetic theory. The aim will be to show how these issues relate to traditional themes in aesthetics, but also how they are simultaneously related to the social and technological transformations of the time. During the semester, a lecture presenting a traditional aesthetic theme will always be followed by a lecture presenting its contemporary update. So, for example, a lecture on the relationship between morality and beauty will introduce contemporary debates about the influence of the creators' moral or ideological profile on the reception of their work, or a lecture on natural beauty will be followed by a lecture on the place of aesthetic values in the environmental movement.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Entry knowledge

None.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

The following conditions are set for the granting of the examination:

  • active participation in class (3 unexcused absences allowed);
  • final written exam.

 

Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (3 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences will be reflected in the number of questions on the final exam.

Aims

By completing the course, students will gain an overview of the roots and current form of the main positions and arguments in the debates currently driving the professional and lay debate on the meaning and nature of art and aesthetic experience.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Pavel ZAHRÁDKA (ed.), Estetika na přelomu milénia. Vybrané problémy současné estetiky, Brno: Barrister & Principal 2010
Tomáš KULKA – Denis CIPORANOV (eds.), Co je umění? Texty angloamerické estetiky 20. století, Červený Kostelec: Pavel Mervart 2010.
Walter BENJAMIN, „Umělecké dílo ve věku své technické reprodukovatelnosti“, in: Výbor z díla I. Literárněvědné studie, Praha: OIKOYMENH 2009, s. 299–326.

Recommended reading

Herta NAGL-DOCEKAL, Feministická filozofie. Výsledky, problémy, perspektivy, Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství 2007, kap. 2 „Umění a ženskost“, s. 101–175.
Peter LAMARQUE – Stein Haugom OLSEN (eds.), Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: the Analytic Tradition: an Anthology, Malden: Blackwell, 2004.
Theodor W. ADORNO, Estetická teorie, Praha: Panglos 1997.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

1. What is art? The concept and institution of art. Issues of definition. 

2. What is a work of art? Ontology of a work of art. The work as an aesthetic object, representation, expression, form, concept. 

3. Art and value. Different theories of the value of art: enjoyment, expression, knowledge. 

4. Original and copy. Issues of reproduction and falsity. 

5. The artwork and the medium. Material and sensory aspects of the experience of art. Intermediality, postmediality, transmediality. 

6. What does art do in society? Aesthetic function and ideology. 

7. Art and mass culture. The high and the low. Kitsch, popular culture, mass culture, culture industry. 

8 .Representation. Reality and realism. Simulacrum. The power of images. 

9. Art and identity. Gender and race in art and visual culture. 

10. Art and nature. The artistic thematization of nature vs. the environmental context of art. 

11. The historicity and actuality of art. Old, modern, postmodern, contemporary, postcontemporary art. Western, world and global art. 

12. Student presentations and discussions of topics discussed during the semester. 

13. Student presentations and discussions of topics covered during the semester.