# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman”
- **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 13 Feb, 2026 at 04:00 pm
- **Event Description**: The idea that a rich aesthetic appreciation of works of art involves incomprehension or bewilderment can seem a commonplace. Thus Siri Hustvedt writes that Giorgione’s “The Tempest” “will always resist my understanding and that is why I keep going back to it.” Yet why not say that what’s satisfying and salutary is the moment when opacity and bewilderment give way to greater understanding, however incomplete? In this paper I propose an answer by engaging with Kant and Susan Sontag’s 1967 essay “The Aesthetics of Silence.” If we do value opacity in art, we must ask: what is the philosophical anthropology or “soul-picture” that supports this? As a case study, I will consider Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film Persona.

Francey Russell, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College and Columbia University, works on issues in moral psychology and ethics, as well as in social philosophy and aesthetics.  Kant and Freud, Nietzsche and Cavell are important points of reference. She is writing a book on the concept of self-opacity and its significance for philosophical accounts of agency and moral psychology. She also writes film criticism as well as on cinematic aesthetics in genre films.


The lecture is made possible by generous support from the departments of Germanic Studies and of Philosophy at IU Bloomington.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/bloomington/francey-russell-the-aesthetics-of-silence-in-kant-sontag-and-bergman/200029629536313
- **Event Categories**: Entertainment, Art
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 0

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Bloomington
- **state**: IN
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 355 N Jordan Ave, Global and International Studies Building 3103, Bloomington, IN, United States, Indiana 47405
- **lat**: 39.16351
- **long**: -86.51623
- **full address**: 355 N Jordan Ave, Global and International Studies Building 3103, Bloomington, IN, United States, Indiana 47405

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman”
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events8/banners/d62f417b62f828ea899450063da681fdf5c020a04beaa14e56a3da6d019b030e-rimg-w800-h933-dc444732-gmir?v=1770353952

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman” being held?
  - **A:** Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman” takes place on Fri, 13 Feb, 2026 at 04:00 pm to Fri, 13 Feb, 2026 at 04:00 pm at 355 N Jordan Ave, Global and International Studies Building 3103, Bloomington, IN, United States, Indiana 47405.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman”?
  - **A:** Francey Russell: “The Aesthetics of Silence in Kant, Sontag, and Bergman” is organized by IU Bloomington Germanic Studies Department.

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