Critique – Resistance – Utopia: Aesthetics for Composers in the 20th and 21st Century

The class will survey and discuss recent aesthetic positions and examine their influence on 20th century music and on current compositional activities. Besides some of the classics of modern aesthetic theory (Adorno/Horckheimer, Derrida, Butler, Deleuze, Zaid) some more recent essays will be read and we will elaborate on contexts, connections, and contradictions of the texts. An important part of the course will be discussions about the relevance of the aesthetic positions surveyed for contemporary music and for our own positions as artists in today’s political situation.