The Class will consider in particular the interpretation Jean-François Lyotard gives of the Analytic of the Sublime, the Section of Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment devoted to this very feeling. The Kantian sublime is often seen as an anticipation of the Romantic imagination, which opens the path to the representation of the otherwise invisible transcendence. Lyotard deconstructs this interpretation and shows that ‘un(re)presentable’ is rather the real object of the sublime as far as this offers an original insight into the work of imagination.
Lyotard reconsiders modern art in the light of his interpretation of Kant: modernism is no longer considered as a revolt against beauty, being rather a way of reconstructing the very idea of exemplarity in art. Art is, thus, exemplary inasmuch it expands the creative and innovative powers of imagination. In that sense, the sublime avant-garde theorized by Lyotard could be even seen as an attempt of creating new conditions for the use of media. Likewise, the negative pleasure of the sublime is considered here as one distinguishing feature of the experience of modernity.

I. Kant, Critique of Power of Judgment, §§ 23-29 and General Remark (Cambridge Edition recommended)
J.-F.Lyotard, Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime, Stanford University Press, chaps. 3-9
J.-F. Lyotard, Acinema, in The Lyotard Reader, ed. by A. Benjamin, Wiley-Blackwell
J.F. Lyotard, The Sublime and the Avant-garde, in The Lyotard Reader, ed. by A. Benjamin, Wiley-Blackwell