Jacques Ranciere’s Politics of Literature, Writing and Aesthetics in the Letters of John Keats

Abstract

Through his numerous works on the philosophy of aesthetics, literature and writing Jacques Rancière has crafted a body of work based on the premise of equality as recognized through aesthetics. In the introduction to the English translation of Rancière’s The Politics of Aesthetics, author Gabriel Rockhill writes Rancière supports abolishing "any presupposed inequalities of intelligence". Rancière argues against any "privileged position usurped by philosophy in its various attempts to speak for others, be it the proletariat, the poor, or anyone else who is not 'destined to think'" Rancière's political positioning of aesthetics finds "those who have no name, who remain invisible and inaudible, can only penetrate the police order [politics] via a mode of subjectivization that transforms the aesthetic coordinators of the community by implementing the universal presupposition of politics: we are all equal". I suggest Rancière's theories on the politics of aesthetics, literature and writing are present in letters written by 19th century Romantic poet John Keats.