Reading Rancière: The Possibility of Politics, the Viability of Aesthetics

Abstract

Abstract

The domain of art has largely been considered as an exclusive domain, distinct from the socio-political arena. In spite of persistent efforts by artists and writers to engage with larger political issues, the social and political forces have made continuous efforts to remind and restrict them within the periphery of their art. The idea of aesthetics itself is based upon the aporia of establishing an exclusive domain and accord a certain universal utility to art. The French philosopher, Jacques Ranciere has tried to engage with this aporia in his oeuvre, trying to demonstrate that “art and politics are contingent notions” which are, in fact, used to define their other. To understand this phenomenon, he renders the idea of police which is described as an organizational system of coordinates that work according to, what he terms as “the distribution of the sensible”, the laws that define the conditions of visibility and invisibility, say ability and unsay ability within a particular social system. This paper would try to explore the consequences these Ranciere ideas on the segregation of the disciplines of aesthetics and politics and in the process, question the nature of the political and the aesthetic, even the very idea of a discipline itself. The views originating from this discussion would also lead to interesting observations about the nature of the democratic itself, marking a strong difference between the ideas of democracy as a distinct political formulation and the democratic substance of a society, the consequences of which can be seen in the European art and culture in the aftermath of the French revolution, for instance, the bourgeoisification of the novel.