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Mal-estar na estética
“O novo modo do eterno consiste em passar”, escreve Jacques Rancière, a certa altura deste livro. E prossegue: “Se a eternidade não faz senão passar [...] a forma é forma de uma pura passagem e é, ao mesmo tempo, momento de uma história das formas”. Estas são apenas duas formulações luminosas do pensamento deste que é um dos mais agudos filósofos contemporâneos, dos raros capazes de pensar o mundo a partir da experiência estética, e não contra ou fora dela.
Em Mal-estar na estética, publicado na França em 2004, na esteira de A partilha do sensível, livro que deslocou de forma profundamente inovadora o debate sobre as relações entre estética e política, Rancière se contrapõe a algumas das principais correntes críticas das últimas décadas (particularmente, às teorias de Alain Badiou e Jean-François Lyotard) ao mesmo tempo em que aprofunda suas investigações sobre o que constitui uma obra de arte e que relações esta entretém com o conjunto da vida social.
Neste, como em outros livros do autor, salta à vista sua capacidade de pensar a política em estreita conexão com as artes, pois ― como ele observa na apresentação escrita especialmente para a edição brasileira ― o que o termo “estética” designa não é uma fruição elitista, mas “uma promessa de comunidade”, compartilhada por todos os humanos.
Em Mal-estar na estética, publicado na França em 2004, na esteira de A partilha do sensível, livro que deslocou de forma profundamente inovadora o debate sobre as relações entre estética e política, Rancière se contrapõe a algumas das principais correntes críticas das últimas décadas (particularmente, às teorias de Alain Badiou e Jean-François Lyotard) ao mesmo tempo em que aprofunda suas investigações sobre o que constitui uma obra de arte e que relações esta entretém com o conjunto da vida social.
Neste, como em outros livros do autor, salta à vista sua capacidade de pensar a política em estreita conexão com as artes, pois ― como ele observa na apresentação escrita especialmente para a edição brasileira ― o que o termo “estética” designa não é uma fruição elitista, mas “uma promessa de comunidade”, compartilhada por todos os humanos.
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2004
21 people are currently reading
687 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Rancière
205 books485 followersJacques Rancière (born Algiers, 1940) is a French philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris (St. Denis) who came to prominence when he co-authored Reading Capital (1968), with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser.
Rancière contributed to the influential volume Reading "Capital" (though his contribution is not contained in the partial English translation) before publicly breaking with Althusser over his attitude toward the May 1968 student uprising in Paris.
Since then, Rancière has departed from the path set by his teacher and published a series of works probing the concepts that make up our understanding of political discourse. What is ideology? What is the proletariat? Is there a working class? And how do these masses of workers that thinkers like Althusser referred to continuously enter into a relationship with knowledge? We talk about them but what do we know? An example of this line of thinking is Rancière's book entitled Le philosophe et ses pauvres (The Philosopher and His Poor, 1983), a book about the role of the poor in the intellectual lives of philosophers.
Most recently Rancière has written on the topic of human rights and specifically the role of international human rights organizations in asserting the authority to determine which groups of people — again the problem of masses — justify human rights interventions, and even war.
In 2006, it was reported that Rancière's aesthetic theory had become a point of reference in the visual arts, and Rancière has lectured at such art world events as the Freize Art Fair. Former French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has cited Rancière as her favourite philosopher.
Rancière contributed to the influential volume Reading "Capital" (though his contribution is not contained in the partial English translation) before publicly breaking with Althusser over his attitude toward the May 1968 student uprising in Paris.
Since then, Rancière has departed from the path set by his teacher and published a series of works probing the concepts that make up our understanding of political discourse. What is ideology? What is the proletariat? Is there a working class? And how do these masses of workers that thinkers like Althusser referred to continuously enter into a relationship with knowledge? We talk about them but what do we know? An example of this line of thinking is Rancière's book entitled Le philosophe et ses pauvres (The Philosopher and His Poor, 1983), a book about the role of the poor in the intellectual lives of philosophers.
Most recently Rancière has written on the topic of human rights and specifically the role of international human rights organizations in asserting the authority to determine which groups of people — again the problem of masses — justify human rights interventions, and even war.
In 2006, it was reported that Rancière's aesthetic theory had become a point of reference in the visual arts, and Rancière has lectured at such art world events as the Freize Art Fair. Former French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has cited Rancière as her favourite philosopher.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Want to read
October 15, 2013OMG, my Avatar is on the cover of this book.....!!!!!
I will have to get it!!!!
I will have to get it!!!!
December 20, 2012
This is programmatic--I advise everyone to read it. It resolutely hammers out the autonomy/dissolution issue. And for that, Ranciere flips through several centuries of aesthetics, making everything clean and maximally lucid. He deserves his fame and all the citations
December 22, 2025
I’ve been reading this book for too long. At some point I had to finish it. I can’t say this was a smooth sail, lots of parts that are way too gritty, made me feel like I was trying to decode a language I don’t know. A short but hard read. Thankfully not all his books are like this. Regardless, I’m glad to have finished this one as it had valuable ideas in it that gave me insight, opened some doors.
June 4, 2020
挺有見地 不錯
November 25, 2024
Read intro+ch1 for class. Very lucid cogent and compelling. Sometimes u will not understand, but Jacques will help u understand.
June 5, 2025
Aussi connu comme malaise dans ma thése :(
June 16, 2016
This philosopher always appeals
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews