Discourse Analysis and the Politics of Aesthetics: Toward a Method

This study proposes discourse analysis, as developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, as a powerful framework for understanding the political dimension of art practices, particularly when given an art-historical focus.It provides a systematic method for studying a broad spectrum of politics, ranging from social movements to state policy, which, when applied to an artistic setting, represents a viable alternative to relational (Bourriaud, Bishop) and philosophical (Rancire) approaches to the politics of aesthetics.Because the method allows for more than texts and actions to be conceived as elements in a discourse, it does not necessarily see, for example, a protest and its image as belonging to separate fields.Thus, there is a fluidity between the aesthetic and the political unified by concepts like hegemony.The study will outline discourse analysis as a methodological framework for approaching aesthetic practices as inherently political and political practices as inherently aesthetic-a method intended to solve the common issues arising when studying and researching art and politics.