The Sublime Conventionality of the World

Niilo Kauppi (1)

1 PRISME-GSPE - Politique, Religion, Institutions et Sociétés : Mutations Européennes - Groupe de Sociologie Politique Européenne

In this paper, I will first present some elements of an aesthetic theory of the sublime. I will then, using the case of the fall of the Soviet Union as an example, develop some ideas for an alternative, constructivist theory of the political sublime that will emphasize the relatively stable symbolic aspects of politics. No matter how dramatic an incident, it needs to be analyzed in dialectical interaction with the symbolic structures of world/local politics. It is in the relatively stable symbolic structures of normal political life that the key to an understanding of the political sublime can be found.

Mots clés: the sublime; symbolic aspects of politics; Finland; The Soviet Union

Domaines: Science politique

Niilo Kauppi. The Sublime Conventionality of the World: Political Mediatization and Finnish Representations of the Fall of the Soviet Union. 2007. ⟨hal-00153703⟩