Aestheticism

Abstract

This essay considers Bersani and Dutoit’s alignment of passivity and the aesthetic in “Merde Alors,” their essay on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Salò. Passivity is a key strategy for the production of works of art and is key to understanding the mode of the aesthetic itself. The question of passivity appears elsewhere in Bersani’s work, and “Merde Alors”—in whole or in part—was republished at key moments in Bersani’s career. This essay gestures toward why “Merde Alors” has had such an interesting and prolific afterlife.