Distributions of the Sensible: Ranciere, between Aesthetics and Politics

Jacques Rancière’s work is increasingly central to several debates across the humanities. Distributions of the Sensible confronts a question at the heart of his thought: How should we conceive the relationship between the “politics of aesthetics” and the “aesthetics of politics”? Specifically, the book explores the implications of Rancière’s rethinking of the relationship of aesthetic to political democracy from a wide range of critical perspectives.

Distributions of the Sensible contains original essays by leading scholars on topics such as Rancière’s relation to political theory, critical theory, philosophical aesthetics, and film. The book concludes with a new essay by Rancière himself that reconsiders the practice of theory between aesthetics and politics.

SCOTT DURHAM is an associate professor of French and the director of graduate studies in French and francophone studies at Northwestern University.

DILIP GAONKAR is a professor of rhetoric and public culture and the director of the Center for Global Culture and Communication at Northwestern University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Benjamin Arditi, Nico Baumbach, Pheng Cheah, Tom Conley, Sudeep Dasgupta, Scott Durham, Jason Frank, Eleanor Kaufman, Giuseppina Mecchia, Codruţa Morari, Jacques Rancière, Joseph J. Tanke