Crítica a la expresividad y a la catarsis en música: hacia una política de sí

Abstract

Fieldwork from a broader research project on music and the body allows me, first, to argue that expressivity and catharsis function as institutions within musical practice and, second, to offer a historical critique of them. This exercise reveals the changes they have undergone until crystallizing into their contemporary institutional function, while clearing the way for an alternative interpretation of musical practice. Thus, music is proposed as a politics of the self an agonistic relationship with oneself arising from the synergy of three axes: the aesthetic, the erotic, and the passional.

The paper concludes by exploring the perspectives opened by this proposal, rejecting conceptions of music as a mere hobby or temporary relief from socioeconomic discontents, and considering it instead as a practice of estrangement from habitual senses and, therefore, as a form of political exhortation.