Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

Critique counts as instrument of individual and collective self-conception of democratic societies. The modern subject constitutes itself through differentiation, assessment and evaluation. It is this ability of differentiation, that creates a democratic society. Or at least this is how the critical project of the Enlightenment was conceived. The extent to which this notion is still valid today is a particularly pressing question. The seminar explores the role and function of the arts in relation to societal questions.
Can claims of universality - or at least of the validity of categories, norms and values as they are negotiated in critical processes - still be made at all - regarding the manifold perspectives and positions present under the conditions of globalization? Is critique, a Western invention, itself a hegemonic and dominating practice which considers itself to be just and justified? Does the value of critique lie in the paying attention to and reflection upon urgent questions? Or can these questions be transformed into operative models for action, as called for by political, social and cultural practice? What potential and what special means do the arts have to make social processes visible or even change them?
Each judgement requires critique, however, if it claims to be generalizable (which does not mean that everyone has to agree, but that everyone can understand the arguments). And critique does not in each case mean being against something. Although rejection can be an effect of critique, critique in terms of its roots means something else. It means differentiation, the observation and description of an object or situation from various perspectives. Critique also means taking into account the conditions surrounding the emergence of a situation, its history, its participants and their interests. And, last not least, critique is capable of designing or imagining different worlds, especially in the arts.
The seminar explores different takes on critique, a variety of critical practices with a focus on the arts, on audio-visual articulations and on different ways of critical writing and arguing.

Students get a deeper understanding of the role of critique in modern and contemporary culture and the role of the arts as critical forms of articulation. The students acquire capacities of describing, interpreting, and argueing and learn how to engage critically with different subjects and contents, especially from the artistic field. Analysing examples, students gain close knowledge of different genres and styles of articulation and of forms of representation.

Further information on teaching evaluation: https://www.leuphana.de/en/teaching/quality-management/evaluation/course-evaluation.html