Aesthetics and Its Discontents

• Jacques Rancière is a leading French philosopher, particularly well known for his work in aesthetics and political philosophy
• This new book is a major contribution to aesthetics and will consolidate Ranciere's reputation as one of the most influential figures in aesthetics today
• Rancière argues that aesthetics operates in the unresolved tension between two opposed forms of politics The first consists in transforming art into forms of collective life, the second in preserving from all forms of militant or commercial compromise the autonomy that makes it a promise of emancipation
• He shows that this constitutive tension sheds light on the paradoxes and transformations of critical art