The Art of Deception: Aesthetics at the Perimeter of Truth HUM 598: Humanistic Perspectives on the Arts

hat is the relationship between art and falsehood? A significant tradition for conceptualizing the arts has long defined their sphere by reference to doubling, fantasy, and betrayal: when we are in the realm of art, we have left the kingdom of the real—and our capacity for proper engagement depends to a considerable degree on our ability to maintain (or at least recover) an awareness of this fact. By these lights, the arts function as something like a safe house for lying, an Elysium for those good deceptions willing to declare themselves. But is all this correct? There are excellent reasons to think not. This course takes up the problem of truth and falsehood in the arts in a sustained way: we will sift the genealogy of current theoretical positions on this issue by means of close reading of classical and recent texts; we will investigate works of art (painting, sculpture, poetry, etc.) that engage these matters, with particular attention to gaming at the margins of the seemingly stable categories; we will weigh the political and critical implications of different postures in this large arena; and we will experiment with new perspectives and practices.