Landscape

Summary

Dominique Pagani consistently distinguishes landscape from nature: the countryside, the bocage, hedges and fields are the product of millennia of human labour, both muscular and intellectual1. He defines landscape as a compromise between what nature provides and human arrangement, and points out that "paese" first means the village, which is the opposite of nature2. He describes it as a surface, an appearance, a screen onto which we project what comes from ourselves, whereas nature lies in depth3. In his view, the enjoyment of landscape becomes possible when the industrial revolution pushes back natural necessity: nature then becomes a spectacle, and its poetry, which appears only at the end of the eighteenth century, comes from the ruling classes4. Finally, he describes an inner landscape, evoked rather than described, from Baudelaire onwards, and suggests that the most beautiful landscapes may be those one hears, in Schubert's music or in Rilke.

1. 1#2 Lenin, or the wings of dreams18 Apr 2021 · 30:07
2. 2#5.4 Introduction: nature or landscape?25 Jan 2019 · 32:40
3. 3#12 Return to the logics of the subject2 Jul 2020 · 1:16:39
4. 4Worldliness in Clouscard, or privileges for all18 May 2023 · 2:18:36

Summary produced automatically from 30 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.