Music as Performance and Subjectivation
Code
722031093
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Filosofia
Credits
10
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Objectives
By the end of this course students should/will be able to demonstrate:
a) to have acquired an advance knowledge of the main concepts, theoretical and methodological frameworks,
sources and problems, of the field of the philosophy and aesthetics of music in particular, and of the musical
thinking, in general, specially since the cultural turn in the 1970’s;
b) to have acquired interdisciplinary discussion tools and being able to examine the role of the main trends of
the research in music within the context of social sciences and humanities;
c) to be able to identify and analyze problems that cross the fields of music, arts, philosophy, science and
culture;
c) to have acquired independent and critical thinking as well as the ability to discuss, synthesize, document and communicate ideas and information in the study field.
Prerequisites
n.a.
Subject matter
The Course proposes a multidimensional systematic critical approach to specific discursive networks which
incorporate the concept of music, taken as an interactive, dynamic and performative process. It discusses
musical experience, in the specific context of the discourse incorporating and constructing it, as a key element
in the production and negotiation of meanings, realities and subjectivities. The Course emphasizes situated
musical experiences and practices, specially from the 20 and 21st centuries. With this aim, the Course focuses
in some of the authors who developed the idea of music as action and subjectivity, as Theodor W. Adorno,
Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler, Lawrence Kramer, Rose Subotnik,Roger Scruton, Tia DeNora,
Lydia Goehr or Carolyn Abbate.
Bibliography
ABBATE, C., \"Music – Drastic or Gnostic?”, Critical Inquiry, nº 30, Spring, Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
2004, pp. 505-536.
ADORNO, T.W., Alban Berg, le maître de la transition infime, Paris, NRF Gallimard, 1989 (tradução francesa).
BUTLER, J., Gender trouble, feminism and the subversion of identity, New York, Routledge, 1990.
DENORA, T., Musicinaction, selected essays in sonic ecology, Ashgate, 2011.
FOUCAULT, M., Les Mots et les Choses, Paris, Gallimard, 1966.
FOUCAULT, M., L’archéologie du savoir, Paris, Gallimard, 1969.
LATOUR, B., Reassembling the social: an introduction to ActorNetworkTheory, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.
KRAMER, L., Classical music and postmodern knowledge, Berkeley, London, University of California Press,
1995.
SUBOTNIK, R., Deconstructive variations: Music and reason in western society, Minneapolis, University of
Minnesota Press, 1996.
Teaching method
Classes are both theoretical and practical. The teaching-learning processes make extensive use of audiovisual
media, and are based in the active learning model. They include, among other methods, exposition and
demonstration, discussion, collaborative learning, literature review, problem solving, case learning, musical and
audiovisual examples interpretation, group and individual presentations, essay writing, among others.
Evaluation method
Evaluation: 1) research project guidelines (20%); 2) a 6.000 word essay and its presentation and discussion in
class (50%); 3) two oral presentations, developed from previous readings (15% each). Critical thinking and class
participation will be valued.