The Emancipated Spectator Paperback – October 1, 2011

Excellent philosopher.

To put things broadly, this small collections by Ranciere is essentially a critique of "The Society of the Spectator." Ranciere's dialectical aesthetics of politics employs nuanced "aesthetic regimes" in order to unearth internal logics of political/aesthetic transformation. In particular, his comments in `The Intolerable Image,' go a long way in launching a critique of the work of art as a dispositif of visibility. That is, the very notion that the image can serve as the simultaneous link between representation, knowledge, and action is revealed as a groundless politics. A highly thoughtful and rich text.

This is a good book and the translation reads well. I don't know where the third essay in this book comes from ("Aesthetic Separation, Aesthetic Community"). It is not from Le spectateur émancipé. It is not indicated in the book, but it here replaces the third essay in the French edition and that essay, "Les paradoxes de l'art politique" which is not here. While there is an essay entitled "The Paradoxes of Political Art" in the collection "Dissensus," that does not seem to be the same essay as the one from Le spectateur émancipé.But aside from this bit of confusion, the text is great and the different essays still cover roughly the same territory of thought. The "Aesthetic Separation, Aesthetic Community" essay is in fact particularly enlightening for outlining his understanding of the aesthetics of knowledge. The first essay, "The Emancipated Spectator," is another highlight in terms of developing Rancière's thinking on aesthetics and politics.

I have been wanting to read this for a very long time. Barely even halfway through and it is already deeply resonating with me. Ranciere's writing puts to words feelings that I had never before conceived through the medium of language, and is a very important perspective to adopt in approaching the art of spectating

Very pleased

👍👍👍

Useful for my thesis.

As expected... challenging.