Cultures of Aesthetic Resistance

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dustin Breitenwischer
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423011087

The network “Cultures of Aesthetic Resistance” seeks to create an interdisciplinary dialogue to continue and expand existing debates about the forms, effects, and (im)possibilities of aesthetic resistance. It draws on a variety of discussions about the role of the aesthetic and forms of political, cultural and social resistance in current discourses of philosophy, social sciences, ethnography, cultural and literary studies. For more than three decades, the humanities and social sciences have been marked by a remarkable tension: on the one hand, they are increasingly interested in forms of aesthetic resistance, be it in their exploration of popular, sub- and countercultures, of issues regarding identity politics, of political protest phenomena, of postcolonial theory formation, etc.; on the other hand, they are noticeably marked by an (inter-)disciplinary resistance to the normative Western tradition of philosophical aesthetics. A focused debate, as it is proposed by the network, seeks to make this tension the foundation of its work. Against the backdrop of a pragmatically dynamic understanding of the aesthetic, the network will discuss whether the formation and effect of resistance movements can even be imagined without considering the power of the aesthetic, and it will try to determine to what extent art and non-artistic cultural, social, and political forms of expression appear aesthetically resistant. In this regard, the continuous revision of Western aesthetic premises opens up crucial questions about the possibilities and dynamics of cultures of aesthetic resistance. Drawing on the idea of an aesthetic pluralism, the network seeks to develop theoretical and practical alternatives, synergies, and collaborations, with which an equally contemporaneous and future-oriented understanding of aesthetic resistance can be formulated. Through the cooperation of scholars from the humanities and the social sciences, the network explores new ways of dealing with the aesthetic and the powerful forces of resistant practices. Accordingly, a historical and cultural-geographical plurality of aesthetic practices serves as the premise of the network’s debates. Above all, this network argues, the question of how to judge the intricate relationship of aesthetics and resistance depends on the cultural and political contexts and the historical and philosophical (pre)conditions, which will be examined and contrasted more closely in the various meetings of the network.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks