Teaching Workshop: Aesthetics of Colour
A.Y. 2023/2024
Learning objectives
The workshop aims to provide students with some essential philosophical notions and skills. First, we will examine the debate on colour that arose in the Anglo-American philosophy in the past 50 years, starting with one of the most provocative positions, i.e. the so-called "eliminativism", which claims that colour does not exist at all. Students will be invited to discuss and embrace one of the different solutions that have been given to the question: what is colour, and where should it be sought? The goal will be to show the limits of every position, and this will lead in turn to shift the research focus.
In a second moment, the central question will be that of colour in art, and in particular in painting. A special attention will be paid, therefore, to the symbolic meaning of colour, also through a number of concrete examples chosen by the teacher and, later, also by the students themselves. The goal will be, on the one hand, to investigate the relationship between philosophy and painting and, on the other hand, to understand how colour arises from a tension between different dimensions: from an interplay between cultural and natural, collective and personal, perceptive and linguistic elements. Colour, therefore, will appear not any more as something simple and "obvious", but rather as an "object" full of stories and possibilities.
In a second moment, the central question will be that of colour in art, and in particular in painting. A special attention will be paid, therefore, to the symbolic meaning of colour, also through a number of concrete examples chosen by the teacher and, later, also by the students themselves. The goal will be, on the one hand, to investigate the relationship between philosophy and painting and, on the other hand, to understand how colour arises from a tension between different dimensions: from an interplay between cultural and natural, collective and personal, perceptive and linguistic elements. Colour, therefore, will appear not any more as something simple and "obvious", but rather as an "object" full of stories and possibilities.
Expected learning outcomes
The workshop intends to allow students to acquire new skills of philosophical inquiry, through the investigation of an apparently simple question, i.e. the problem of colour. Through the debate on colour, students will also become aware of the fracture that exists between the vision of the world proposed by modern science and that of our common experience, and to accept the challenge of their rapprochement. Finally, the part on colour in art aims at teaching students to approach artworks from a philosophical point of view, showing how their relationship with colour is determined only within the artwork itself, and requires therefore a constant and active confrontation.
Lesson period: First semester
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Workshop title: Paintings by way of saying. The Aesthetics of Colour in Literature (starting from Poetry)
The aim of this workshop is to demonstrate how aesthetics and the theory of colour can be given (and above all can be made) also through literature; the opportunity is taken to experiment this by directly using literary discourse, and in particular poetic discourse. The students enrolled will be offered a course that will run on two tracks, not only parallel but often intertwined. Through lectures, a basic overview of modern colour theories will be provided, as well as the themes they open up if applied to a regime that is neither philosophical-conceptual nor figurative-visible, but rather literary-visible (with the support of theoretical excerpts ranging from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's aesthetics of colour to contemporary colour theories, where they study the relationship between colour and literature: think of Michele Cometa's and Amelia Valtolina's research as examples). And then we will analyse, in concert, literary texts that, strictly speaking, address and establish theoretical perspectives on colour. The focus will be more on poetic proofs that, due to their brevity, allow for circumscribed reflections without renouncing depth.
The theoretical line will focus on the following issues: an introduction to the opposition between colour-colour versus line-drawing in the history of Western culture; literary colour as translation; literary colour as description; literary colour as symbol; literary colour as visual production; literary colour as abstraction; literary colour directly embodied in verbo-visual textuality. The practical line will touch upon the following points of the itinerary of colour in literature: the colour that takes over in modern poetry (from Friedrich Hölderlin to Rainer Maria Rilke, via Charles Baudelaire); the colour that builds the new syntax of modernist poetry (from Georg Trakl to the American side, emblematised by Gertrude Stein, e.e. cummings and William Carlos Williams); the colour that sensitively appears in the neo-avant-garde verbo-visual phenomenon (Austro-German, Brazilian and English concrete poetry, Italian visual poetry). Occasional examples in prose (Novalis, Marcel Proust, the Nouveau Roman) will help. The students themselves, should they wish, will be free to suggest passages to be commented on collectively; in order to make the teaching a dialogue. Anything the lecturer reads in class will be made available via email or drive to those who follow, none of which constitutes compulsory reading. There will be no final report or written paper; the only rules to comply with are those laid down by the university: 70% attendance of lectures.
The aim of this workshop is to demonstrate how aesthetics and the theory of colour can be given (and above all can be made) also through literature; the opportunity is taken to experiment this by directly using literary discourse, and in particular poetic discourse. The students enrolled will be offered a course that will run on two tracks, not only parallel but often intertwined. Through lectures, a basic overview of modern colour theories will be provided, as well as the themes they open up if applied to a regime that is neither philosophical-conceptual nor figurative-visible, but rather literary-visible (with the support of theoretical excerpts ranging from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's aesthetics of colour to contemporary colour theories, where they study the relationship between colour and literature: think of Michele Cometa's and Amelia Valtolina's research as examples). And then we will analyse, in concert, literary texts that, strictly speaking, address and establish theoretical perspectives on colour. The focus will be more on poetic proofs that, due to their brevity, allow for circumscribed reflections without renouncing depth.
The theoretical line will focus on the following issues: an introduction to the opposition between colour-colour versus line-drawing in the history of Western culture; literary colour as translation; literary colour as description; literary colour as symbol; literary colour as visual production; literary colour as abstraction; literary colour directly embodied in verbo-visual textuality. The practical line will touch upon the following points of the itinerary of colour in literature: the colour that takes over in modern poetry (from Friedrich Hölderlin to Rainer Maria Rilke, via Charles Baudelaire); the colour that builds the new syntax of modernist poetry (from Georg Trakl to the American side, emblematised by Gertrude Stein, e.e. cummings and William Carlos Williams); the colour that sensitively appears in the neo-avant-garde verbo-visual phenomenon (Austro-German, Brazilian and English concrete poetry, Italian visual poetry). Occasional examples in prose (Novalis, Marcel Proust, the Nouveau Roman) will help. The students themselves, should they wish, will be free to suggest passages to be commented on collectively; in order to make the teaching a dialogue. Anything the lecturer reads in class will be made available via email or drive to those who follow, none of which constitutes compulsory reading. There will be no final report or written paper; the only rules to comply with are those laid down by the university: 70% attendance of lectures.
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites are necessary to participate in this workshop.
Teaching methods
The lecturer will conduct lectures that will be primarily frontal in Italian, but will - it is hoped - soon become dialogic. Texts, both literary and theoretical, will be read, always accompanied by precise bibliographic references, which will then be provided to the students in pdf format for their personal edification; an attempt will also be made to reflect, in the case of poetry, on the various translations available. Images and, if there is time and opportunity, short audiovisuals will also be projected.
Teaching Resources
As written, there will not be any pages that will be administered in a compulsory manner. However, for anyone who would like to know the cornerstones of "chromatic" poetry more extensively, the lecturer takes the liberty of recommending - for personal edification above all - some translations of fundamental poetic books that he considers better than others (all of which can be purchased in paperback editions).
- Charles Baudelaire, "I fiori del male", trans. by Nicola Muschitello, Rizzoli, Milan 2012 ff. [the version by Giovanni Raboni (Einaudi) is also excellent; Giorgio Caproni's (Marsilio) is historical and authoritative; Antonio Prete's rhyming version (Feltrinelli) is not recommended; Gesualdo Bufalino's archaic, ineffective and outdated version (Mondadori) is forbidden].
- Rainer Maria Rilke, "Poesie. 1907-1926, edited by Andreina Lavagetto, transl. it. by Giacomo Cacciapaglia and Anna Lucia Giavotto Künkler, Einaudi, Turin 2014 ff.
- Georg Trakl, "Le poesie", trans. by Vera degli Alberti and Eduard Innerkofler, Garzanti, Milan 1983 ff. [although no longer reprinted, the translation by Enrico De Angelis (Marsilio) is also excellent; please note: other Traklian editions often contain good translations but do not coincide with the poet's complete works].
Further bibliographical suggestions, about both literary and theoretical texts, will be provided in the course of the lectures, also depending on the requests of those attending.
- Charles Baudelaire, "I fiori del male", trans. by Nicola Muschitello, Rizzoli, Milan 2012 ff. [the version by Giovanni Raboni (Einaudi) is also excellent; Giorgio Caproni's (Marsilio) is historical and authoritative; Antonio Prete's rhyming version (Feltrinelli) is not recommended; Gesualdo Bufalino's archaic, ineffective and outdated version (Mondadori) is forbidden].
- Rainer Maria Rilke, "Poesie. 1907-1926, edited by Andreina Lavagetto, transl. it. by Giacomo Cacciapaglia and Anna Lucia Giavotto Künkler, Einaudi, Turin 2014 ff.
- Georg Trakl, "Le poesie", trans. by Vera degli Alberti and Eduard Innerkofler, Garzanti, Milan 1983 ff. [although no longer reprinted, the translation by Enrico De Angelis (Marsilio) is also excellent; please note: other Traklian editions often contain good translations but do not coincide with the poet's complete works].
Further bibliographical suggestions, about both literary and theoretical texts, will be provided in the course of the lectures, also depending on the requests of those attending.
Assessment methods and Criteria
At the end of the workshop, the actual compulsory attendance of the activities will be verified in order to correctly register and assign the corresponding CFU. It will not be compulsory to submit a written paper or an oral presentation; however, the last lessons are intended to be a dialogue, where the free initiative of those who attend is welcomed and where it will be possible to discuss together the topics examined in class, with ideas and examples that everyone can propose.
- University credits: 3
Humanities workshops: 20 hours
Professor:
Sessa Marcello