The Critique of the Bourgeois
Alexi Kukuljevic
Institute of Studies in Art and Art Education, Art Theory
2026S, scientific seminar (SEW), 4.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S05944
Scientific bachelor seminar for teacher education
Description
The bourgeois is the subject of modernity. As Immanuel Wallerstein puts it: “Hero for some, villain for others, the inspiration or lure for most, he has been the shaper of the present and the destroyer of the past.” Initially designating the inhabitant of the “bourg” (an urban area), the bourgeois designated a new social type, a new class, “free” from the social obligations defining the strict social hierarchy of the feudal political structure. The bourgeois was neither a peasant who worked the land, an aristocratic member of the nobility who owned the land, nor a member of the clergy. The bourgeois constituted an anomaly within the social structure: a “middle-class” whose emerging political power consummated in the 19th century was concomitant with the rise of market society and the new form of economic production, imperial power, and colonial expansion that defined it: in short, capitalism. We cannot conceptualize the bourgeois subject without thinking capitalism.
For Marx, the bourgeois subject has to be understood as a personification of Capital and the social relations it engenders and thereby conceptually determines. As Marx and Engels formulate it in the Communist Manifesto, the bourgeoisie establishes as the sole nexus between human beings “naked self-interest” and “callous ‘cash payment.’” However, this does not mean that capitalism and capitalist society is driven by a psychological motive but that this form of consciousness is itself defined by the social structure that determines it.
In the first volume of Capital, Marx undertakes an effort to understand the structures that define this system of social exchange and the bourgeois subject that is its ideological product. By laying bare the inner structure of the mode of production that defines capitalist society, Marx provides a complete and total critique of this subject that personifies its interest and thus the form of consciousness it embodies. As a critique of classical political economy, Marx’s Capital is a critique in turn of the form of self-consciousness that defines its historical protagonist.
The seminar will consist of an effort to read Capital, Volume I.
S05944 - The Critique of the Bourgeois (SEW)
18.03.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
25.03.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)15.04.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
22.04.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
29.04.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 23 (VZA, EG)
06.05.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
13.05.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
20.05.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 23 (VZA, EG)
27.05.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 23 (VZA, EG)
03.06.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 21 (VZA, 4.OG)
10.06.2026 - 13:30 bis 15:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
Examination Modalities
Attendance, Short-essay or equivalent
Comments
Auch deutschsprachige BA-Abschlussarbeiten sind willkommen!
Key Words
Critique, Capitalism, Marx, Political economy, dialectical materialism, Marx's Capital
Dates
Wed, 18 March 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Wed, 25 March 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Wed, 22 April 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Wed, 29 April 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 23
Wed, 06 May 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Wed, 13 May 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Wed, 20 May 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 23
Wed, 27 May 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 23
Wed, 03 June 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 21
Wed, 10 June 2026, 13:30–15:30 Seminar Room 25
Course Enrolment
From 02 February 2026, 09:00
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: aus Kunsttheorie 067/003.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.85
Art Education: subject kkp (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 067/003.25
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject tex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 071/003.80
Art Education: subject dae (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 072/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.85
Art Education: subject dex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 074/003.25
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations: Theoretical foundations 180/003.01
Expanded Museum Studies (Master): Electives: Art Theory 537/080.12
Stage Design (2. Section): Kunsttheorie und Kulturwissenschaften: Kunsttheorie 542/207.03
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie und Geschichte : Kunsttheorie 566/208.13
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie, Geschichte: Kunsttheorie 567/208.13
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 1: Art Theory 568/005.05
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 2: Art Theory 568/006.05
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Humanities 576/203.02
Design: Specialisation in Communication Design (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 577/203.02
Conservation and Restoration (2. Section): Geisteswissenschaften: Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte 588/204.10
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Art Theory, Cultural Studies, Art History, Philosophy 605/202.01
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice 605/202.80
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 626/203.02
Co-registration: possible
Attending individual courses: possible