“Fascist aesthetics include but go far beyond the rather special celebration of the primitive [...;] they also flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, and extravagant effort; they exalt two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude. The relations of domination and enslavement take the form of a characteristic pageantry: the massing of groups of people; the turning of people into things; the multiplication of things and grouping of people/things around an all-powerful, hypnotic leader figure or force. The fascist dramaturgy centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty forces and their puppets. Its choreography alternates between ceaseless motion and a congealed, static, “virile” posing. Fascist art glorifies surrender; it exalts mindlessness: it glamorizes death.” (Susan Sontag, “Fascinating Fascism”, in Under the Sign of Saturn, 1980)
In light of Sontag's notions on fascist art, we will revisit Walter Benjamin's thoughts on fascism and aesthetics and learn how films communicate ideology, promote emotional rather than material rewards, and aestheticize politics. In this course, students will become familiar with key texts on film art, aesthetics, Marxism, and ideology as well as key films with strong ideological contents.
- Dozent/in: Marcel Hartwig