While giving a general overview over central positions in modern and contemporary art theory and philosophical aesthetics, this course puts particular systematic emphasis on the issue of artistic subjectivity. Against the background of Hegel's thesis that art is "a thing of the past that has lost for us genuine truth and life," we examine the state and meaning of artistic subjectivity and agency under current (political, social, economic, technological, and cultural) conditions. Especially, we consider the possibilities and limitations of art today to critically distance itself from and to productively challenge regimes of immanence and "stuckness." Juxtaposing discourses of continental philosophy, of image and literary theory, and of postcolonial and psychoanalytic theory with concrete artistic practices and interventions, we thus seek to develop a critique -- i.e., an analysis that circumscribes the sphere of action and influence -- of critical art -- i.e., of art forms capable of indicating and opening up alternatives to the status quo. Among other things, our discussions will touch upon the questions how specific comportments (e.g., "creativity," "receptivity," or "responsivity"), attitudes (e.g., "social engagement" or "political activism"), and subject positions (e.g., queer or diasporic) enable and shape critical forms of artistic subjectivity. Our readings will include selected texts and passages from authors such as Th. Adorno and M. Merleau-Ponty, M. Foucault and J. Derrida, S. Sontag and G. Spivak, S. Ahmed and H. Steyerl.

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