Keywords. A vocabulary for contemporary artistic culture

In 1976, Raymond Williams published his book Keywords, an attempt to propose a vocabulary adapted to the culture and society that arose in the second half of the twentieth century, following the interruption produced by the Second World War and the collapse of distinctions between academic and popular culture. In Williams's opinion, the book was a response to the need to update a worn-out language that was no longer able to make reality comprehensible. It was necessary to find a new common vocabulary, to reach a mutual agreement about the meaning and relevance of certain fundamental terms. But it was also necessary to formulate a far-reaching cultural project for the age through this lexicon, which would eliminate the categorical differences between the artistic and the social: it would be built precisely on overcoming them. In other words, it would set out from the intersection of the fields of the arts and the social sciences. This seemed the only possible way to structure a cultural project aimed at social transformation. The hypotheses put forward by Raymond Williams still seem fully valid today, and his work has been a source of inspiration for this course.

The program is presented as a new chapter in a long-term series. The sessions are intended as attempts to define key words, though the way each group approaches such definition may vary. Each session will consist of a presentation and rebuttal made by different guest speakers.

All sessions will be led and moderated by a guest from the local context.

Enrolled students who attend a minimum of 7 sessions are entitled to an attendance certificate issued by the Institut de Ciències de l'Educació, Universitat de Barcelona.