The Egalitarian Aesthetics Of Jacques Ranci(?)re

This dissertation is to explore the egalitarian aesthetics of Jacques Ranciere,the most important western aesthetic theories in the new century.It describes the historical background and the theoretical genealogy in which his aesthetic theory develops,and then demonstrates the specific models of his aesthetics operated in literature and art criticism,finally sums up the merits and defects of his aesthetic theory by referring to the theory of cultural egalitarianism.The whole dissertation falls into four parts,apart from the introduction and conclusion:The introduction sketches out the value of the thesis,the research methods and the general framework,and clarifies the status quo of the translations of and researches on Jacques Ranciere both at home and abroad,whereby the gap between Ranciere studies in China and those of the western world is made clear.The first chapter outlines the early thought of Jacques Ranciere by focusing on his reflections on the former great thinkers in the history of western thought.It introduces the May'68 as the historical background of Ranciere's egalitarian aesthetics,with a detailed analysis of the influences of the movement's anarchist politics on Ranciere's theory.Then,it takes the break between Ranciere and his teacher Althusser into consideration,thus presenting how the critique of pedagogy became the starting point of Ranciere's political theory.The theoretical genealogy from Plato to Bourdieu is also under discussion and reflection.Finally,it examines Ranciere's theory in relation to Gramcism and anarchism,showing that the latter's thoughts have always been references in the formation of Ranciere's own theory.The second chapter investigates into the approaches by which Ranciere's political theory is transformed into aesthetic theory,and Ranciere's general aesthetic theory is interpreted.Firstly,the paper introduces the basic concepts of Ranciere's political philosophy and elucidates how to use the concepts to redefine politics.Secondly,by drawing on Ranciere's approach,the paper clarifies the two dimensions of his aesthetic theory,one of which is the theory of art regime,another is his"emancipated spectator" theory.The two dimensions underlies the basic framework of Ranciere's aesthetic theory.Finally,the critique of Bourdieu's sociological aesthetics consisted in Ranciere's theory is under discussion.Chapter three mainly interprets Ranciere's literary theory.The paper depicts Ranciere's basic viewpoint on the "politics of writing",then politics of novels is clarified with Flaubert's theory of style and creation as the foundation,what's more,Ranciere's political theory of poetry is expanded on the basis of Mallarme's poetics and Derrida's theory of intransitive writing.After all,the analysis of transformation from the age of belles letters to that of literature is taken as an conclusion.Chapter four mainly discusses the art criticism of Jacques Ranciere since the beginning of the new century,such as his critique of plane art,sculpture and cinema.And then,with his investigation into movies,Ranciere has developed his theory of art regimes which is rendered in the 1990s,therefore the paper emphasizes how the notion of egalitarianism is revealed in Ranciere's art criticism.The conclusion is a general reflection on Ranciere's aesthetic theory as a whole,with the comparison of Paul Willes's ethnographical research and the non-fiction on the women-worker of Leslie Chang,the paper attempts to make out the reason why the non-referential theory of Ranciere's utopia would suffice to be an important complement to Bourdieu's and other philosopher-kings' theories.