TY - JOUR
T1 - Aestheticisation of politics
T2 - From fascism to radical democracy
AU - Simons, Jon
PY - 2008/7
Y1 - 2008/7
N2 - The aestheticisation of politics, a term coined by Walter Benjamin, refers to a critique of various modes of politics considered to be irrational in leftist, critical theory. The critique ties aestheticised politics to fascism and capitalism, thereby precluding the conceptual possibility of a radical democratic aesthetic politics. This paper challenges that position first by working through Wolfgang Welsch's semantic clarification of the term aesthetics, then by deriving different senses of aestheticised politics from the range of meanings given by Welsch. A typology of aestheticised politics, from fascist to communist, depicts the conceptual possibility of a radical democratic political aesthetics.
AB - The aestheticisation of politics, a term coined by Walter Benjamin, refers to a critique of various modes of politics considered to be irrational in leftist, critical theory. The critique ties aestheticised politics to fascism and capitalism, thereby precluding the conceptual possibility of a radical democratic aesthetic politics. This paper challenges that position first by working through Wolfgang Welsch's semantic clarification of the term aesthetics, then by deriving different senses of aestheticised politics from the range of meanings given by Welsch. A typology of aestheticised politics, from fascist to communist, depicts the conceptual possibility of a radical democratic political aesthetics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=55849100024&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14797580802522101
DO - 10.1080/14797580802522101
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:55849100024
SN - 1479-7585
VL - 12
SP - 207
EP - 229
JO - Journal for Cultural Research
JF - Journal for Cultural Research
IS - 3
ER -