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Aesthetics of commodity enchantment: fashion, fetish and femininity from Baudelaire to Böhme
The aim of this seminar will be to point out the important role of sartorial fashion in modern aesthetics. The entry of fashion into aesthetic thinking in the second half of the 19th century is linked to an unprecedented boom of things in the human environment. This can be seen in the bourgeois culture of living, world exhibitions, and the development of modern department stores. According to Marx, commodities become fetishes because, although originally human products, they gain power over humans. This rule of things, which in the case of garments is even incorporated into the living body, brings about a transformation of aesthetics itself towards greater openness to everyday phenomena. In this magical surrounding of things, strategies also begin to emerge through which women in the patriarchal culture of the 19th century seek ways to self-esteem and greater self-realization. We want to examine this unique interconnection of all the above-mentioned levels in key texts of the late 19th and 20th centuries from both Western literary fiction and aesthetic, sociological, and philosophical theory. Emphasis will be on a seminar reading of selected parts of texts by Charles Baudelaire, Émile Zola, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and recent theorists of "New fetishism," especially Hartmut Böhme and Barbara Vinken. Texts by these authors will be analysed, discussed, and set in their historical and theoretical background. All texts will be read in English. In the case of key passages, the original may be taken into account, but knowledge of German and French is not a prerequisite for the seminar. The seminar will take place once a week /90 minutes/. Participants are required to attend in person. They are also expected to actively participate in the discussions in the seminar sessions. To be able to successfully end the course, the students have to submit a paper (600–1000 words). The topic of the paper should be based on the material discussed in class, and the topic has to be previously agreed upon with the teacher. ECTS credits: 6 Syllabus of lessons 1. Introduction: Aims of the course, subject, texts, and authors 2. The realm of artificial in Baudelaire's aesthetics 3. Function of sartorial fashion for aesthetics in Baudelaire 4. Émile Zola – clothes make the (patriarchal) society through the woman 5. Walter Benjamin's fashion with its sex appeal of inorganic 6. Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, and the department store 7. Window shopping, flaneurism, and fragile femininity 8. Dialectics of the equalization and individualization in Simmel's "Philosophy of Fashion." 9. Woman and her self-expression through dress? 10. Hartmut Böhme and new fetishism 11. Barbara Vinken’s playful gender identity 12. Dandy as a form of modern aesthetic subjectivity 13. Final remarks and discussion of the submitted seminar papers Bibliography Primary literature: Baudelaire, Charles. 2010. The Painter of Modern Life. London: Penguin UK Benjamin, Walter. 1999. The Arcades Project. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London: Belknap Press Böhme, Hartmut. 2014. Fetishism and Culture: A Different Theory of Modernity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Marx, Karl. 2024. Capital, Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, pp. 47- 59 Simmel, Georg. 1997. "The Philosophy of Fashion“. In Frisby, David and Featherstone, Mike. (ed.) Simmel on Culture. Selected Writings. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 187–206 Simmel, Georg. 1997. "The Metropolis and Mental Life.“ In Frisby, David and Featherstone, Mike. (ed.) Simmel on Culture. Selected Writings. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 174–187 Vinken, Barbara. 1999. Transvesty—Travesty: Fashion and Gender. In Fashion Theory, vol. 3, pp. 33-49 Secondary literature: Carter, Michael. 2003. Fashion Classics. From Carlyle to Barthes. Oxford, New York: Berg Garelick, Ronda, K.1998. Rising Star. Dandyism, Gender, and Performance in the Fin de Siecle. Princeton: Princeton University Press Lehmann, Ulrich. 2000. Tigersprung, Fashion in Modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London (England): The MIT Press Man, Paul de. 1970. "Literary History and Literary Modernity ", pp. 384-404. In Daedelus, Vol. 99, Spring, No. 2 Sullivan, Anthony. 2015. Karl Marx, Fashion and Capitalism. In Rocamora, A.; Smelik, A. (eds.) Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists, pp. 28 - 45 Vinken, Barbara. 1995. Temples of Delight: Consuming Consumption in Émile Zola's Au Bonheur des dames. In Cohen, M.; Prendergast, Ch. (eds.) Spectacles of Modernity, Gender, Body, Genre. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 268-294 Wilson, Elisabeth. 1985. Adorned in Dreams. Fashion and Modernity. London and New York: I.B. Tauris Poslední úprava: Kubalík Štěpán, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.04.2026)
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Bibliography
Primary literature
Baudelaire, Charles. 2010. The Painter of Modern Life. London: Penguin UK.
Benjamin, Walter. 2003. "On the Concept of History ". In Eiland, Howard and Jennings, Michael W. (ed.) Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. 4, 1938-1940. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London: Belknap Press.
Benjamin, Walter. 1999. The Arcades Project. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London: Belknap Press.
Lipovetsky, Gilles. 1994. The Empire of Fashion. Dressing Modern Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Simmel, Georg. 1997. "The Philosophy of Fashion“. In Frisby, David and Featherstone, Mike. (ed.) Simmel on Culture. Selected Writings. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 187-206.
Simmel, Georg. 1997. "The Metropolis and Mental Life.“ In Frisby, David and Featherstone, Mike. (ed.) Simmel on Culture. Selected Writings. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, pp. 174-187.
Veblen, Thorstein. 2007. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Secondary literature
Calinescu, Matei. 1987. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism. Durham: Duke University Press Books.
Carter, Michael. 2003. Fashion Classics. From Carlyle to Barthes. Oxford, New York: Berg.
Garelick, Ronda, K.1998. Rising Star. Dandyism, Gender, and Performace in the Fin de Siecle. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hroch, Petra. 2010. "Fashion and Its 'Revolutions in Walter Benjamin's Arcades." In Pusca, Anca M. (ed.) Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Change. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 108 -127.
Lehmann, Ulrich. 2000. Tigersprung, Fashion in Modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London (England): The MIT Press.
Man, Paul de. 1970. "Literary History and Literary Modernity ", pp. 384-404. In Daedelus, Vol. 99, Spring, No. 2.
Svendsen, Lars. 2006. Fashion: A Philosophy. London: Reaktion Books.
Wilson, Elisabeth. 1985. Adorned in Dreams. Fashion and Modernity. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. Poslední úprava: Kubalík Štěpán, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.04.2026)
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