The term "post" that prefixes many critical theories raised at the end of the twentieth century (post-modernism, post-structuralism, post-Marxism, etc.), alludes to some kind of ideational departure from "something" that had preceded them. The understanding of these theoretical approaches thus requires a background concerning those theories that on the one hand served as a source of inspiration, and on the other hand as a target for bold attacks on what is sometimes termed "contemporary theories".

The course will focus on certain basic ideas of several currents of theoretical thought that were prevalent at the twentieth century, and had a decisive influence on both art and the discourse on art: existentialism, structuralism and semiotics, post-structuralism and phenomenology.