52-202 The Visual Culture of Totalitarianism: Fascism, Art and Ideology
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
What makes art totalitarian Is there a set of specific styles or subjects that characterize art produced under dictatorships How does political power influence artistic creation Can totalitarian architecture be beautiful What should a democratic society do with its fascist relics This course is devoted to the study of the visual culture created during the Fascist regime, seen in relation to not only the aesthetic trends that developed in Western democratic and dictatorial societies during the 1930s, but also to the more recent examples offered, for instance, by Revolutionary China and Saddam Husseins Iraq. It is conceived to introduce students to the different theoretical tools and debates that have characterized the study of totalitarian aesthetics in the last decades. In the course of the semester, we will investigate the ways in which a regime can push not only artists and architects but also common people to reflect on and engage with aesthetic values and we will chart the functioning of patronage, mass psychology, and intellectual dissent during times of dictatorship.
Prerequisites: none listed
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