COMMUNICATION AESTHETICS
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
They will be evaluated:
1. the ability to use the specific languages of the problem;
2. how to relate1. a general culture acquired as part of a five-year high school course;
2. a general interest in culture in its various social manifestations, from the historical and sociological approach to the more general problems of the world of communication.
The learning will be verified by an oral test.
The oral exam consists of a presentation of the topics covered in the course and will aim to ascertain the candidate's preparation on the texts in question and his ability to give a critical interpretation.
They will be evaluated:
- the lexical correctness of the presentation (5 points);
- the correctness of the conceptual analysis carried out on the texts (10 points);
- the acquisition of an effective learning methodology (5 points);
- the critical capacity and autonomy of the student (10 points).
The course of this year 2020-21 is:
Small Apocalypse.
Pandemics, global warming and other disasters in the collective imagination and reality.
The course aims to develop some basic skills as well as some insights into specific aspects of aesthetics related to concepts such as apocalypse, catastrophe and pandemic as a driving force in social transformation:
1. in history;
2. in propaganda;
3. in economic relations;
4. in fake news.
More generally, in war.
The learning technique includes the exposition and interpretation of a series of interdiscilinary texts of philosophical, historical, sociological and anthropological thought. These works will be the basis for activating the ability to understand the processes of building the image of the world, in the sphere of arts and literature, but also the construction of social identity by the protagonists of knowledge in Western culture. Specifically, students will have to demonstrate that they are able to analyze and critically interpret texts in the light of what they have learned in the course.
They will be evaluated:
1. the ability to use the specific languages of the problem;
2. the relationship and interdisciplinary dimension of the knowledge;
3. the relationship between the aesthetic dimension and the formation of individual and social subjectivity in the contemporary world.
The course is developed according to three reference didactic and formative lines:
- the analysis of the concept of pandemic, through the verification of the impact in societies in various forms throughout history (institutional part, 20 hours);
- the analysis of the concept of apocalypse, in the fields of art, history, economy, politics and social communication (18 hours);
- The exposition of not only negative productivity of catastrophes in the sectors listed above, as the engine of the transformations of taste, power and knowledge (16 hours).
1. William H. McNeill, La peste nella storia, Res gestae, Milano 2020
2. Pierre Dalla Vigna, I non-luoghi del Corona Virus. Il Covid-19, la filosofia e gli zombi, Mimesis, Milano 2020
then, two books of yours choice:
3. Slavoj Zizek, Virus, Ponte alle Grazie, Milano, 2020
4. Laura Spinley, 1918, L’influenza Spagnola. La pandemia che cambiò il mondo, Feltrinelli, Milano 2018
5. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, La morte e il morire, La cittadella, Assisi, 1976
6. Mark Honigsbaum, Pandemie. Dalla Spagnola al Covid-19, un secolo di terrore e ignoranza, Ponte alle grazie, Milano 2020
7. David Quammen, Spillover. L’evoluzione delle pandemie, Adelphi, Milano 2020
8. Derek Diamond, Armi acciaio e malattie. Breve storia del mondo negli ultimi tredicimila anni, Einaudi, Torino, 1992.
For those who do not attend, there are three texts to choose from.
The activities will take place through frontal lessons, in which the teacher will illustrate the contents of the course by asking students to participate interactively through interventions, questions and reflections, in a tight dialectic confrontation between professor and students.
Hours of reception
By appointment via E-mail (pierre.dallavigna@uninsubria.it) or telephone contact (cell. 347 4254976).