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Coda

Xing Fan

in Staging Revolution: Artistry and Aesthetics in Model Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution

The coda offers an analysis of how the five major artistic aspects work together in model jingju in communicating a particular type of aesthetics. Focusing on the nature and expression of beauty, the ... More

The coda offers an analysis of how the five major artistic aspects work together in model jingju in communicating a particular type of aesthetics. Focusing on the nature and expression of beauty, the author examines three interrelated questions: Did the notion of beauty matter during the creative process? What is considered beautiful and therefore aesthetically favored? And how is this sense of beauty communicated? The author highlights two dominant aesthetic qualities in model jingju: the beauty of the sublime and the beauty of masculinity. The author analyzes imbalance as a primary aesthetic feature in two spheres: gender representation and aesthetic expectations. Finally, the author proposes that the deep roots of the imbalance in model jingju lie in the varied levels of association among the three traditional aesthetic principles—conventionalization, stylization, and synthesis—and each of the five major artistic aspects—playwriting, acting, music, design, and directing, and that, ultimately, the overarching creative directive, the Combination of Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism, was a flawed premise for model jingju.Less

“Bombs of Laughter”: Motion Pictures, Mass Art, and Universal Language

Russ Castronovo

in Beautiful Democracy: Aesthetics and Anarchy in a Global Era

Instead of reading motion pictures as aesthetic artifacts, this chapter describes the political-aesthetic discourse that surrounds film. With the exception of one of Charlie Chaplin's, it does not ... More

Instead of reading motion pictures as aesthetic artifacts, this chapter describes the political-aesthetic discourse that surrounds film. With the exception of one of Charlie Chaplin's, it does not undertake readings of individual films, if only because scholars such as Jonathan Auerbach, Jane Gaines, and Miriam Hansen bring much more expertise and insight to that endeavor. The chapter's use of Chaplin, moreover, does not present a reading of an early film, since it is concerned with treating Modern Times (1936), a film whose date of production makes it anything but an early film, as an artwork essay that provides a retrospective commentary on the vanishing prospect of motion pictures as a collective, even global, aesthetic medium. The chapter explores how social activists, psychologists, actors, and filmmakers invoked aesthetic principles to adduce political possibilities from what was heralded as a new, universal art form promising to inaugurate worldwide sensus communis.Less

Contemporary Models

Mark William Roche

in Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century

This chapter asks the question of what aesthetic and hermeneutic principles guide literary criticism in this day and age. The chapter thus provides an evaluation of two ruling methodologies of the ... More

This chapter asks the question of what aesthetic and hermeneutic principles guide literary criticism in this day and age. The chapter thus provides an evaluation of two ruling methodologies of the era: the historical methodology and the formalist methodology—or the schools of culture studies and deconstruction. The chapter goes on to discuss their weaknesses and how they neglect the aesthetic dimension and unique value of literature. The chapter also asks the question of what are the standards and criteria for good art—a question that critics often ask of literature but also one that does not add value to literary criticism. The question that should be asked, therefore, is what critics and the general public indirectly value as great art. The chapter suggests three criteria. First, is the process of a work's production (the author's gender, race, or class). The second is the worth of an idea, characterized by its truth in the real world. The third is to give female and minorities models to follow.Less

Introduction Music and the Arts in Socialist Cuba

Robin D. Moore

in Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba

This introductory chapter discusses the prominent role that leaders in state socialist countries typically credit to culture, summarizing the practical issues they face as they try to inspire music ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the prominent role that leaders in state socialist countries typically credit to culture, summarizing the practical issues they face as they try to inspire music making in a more utopian world. It also notes some of the deficiencies they recognize in the music making of non-socialist countries, such as the United States, and also studies the Cuban Revolution and the socialist aesthetic principles, which have influenced the motivations of policy makers. The chapter furthermore considers the importance of culture to the new societies that these construct.Less

The Disaster of the Native

Marc Nichanian, G. M. Goshgarian, and Jeff Fort

in Mourning Philology: Art and Religion at the Margins of the Ottoman Empire

This chapter introduces the reader to the poetical work of Daniel Varuzhan and offers a new account of the invention of the native. It shows how the poet reclaimed “poetic paganism” as a motto for ... More

This chapter introduces the reader to the poetical work of Daniel Varuzhan and offers a new account of the invention of the native. It shows how the poet reclaimed “poetic paganism” as a motto for his work, and how this work aims at the restoration of the native. The native is a fallen witness and a living ruin. The main object of this chapter is the description of the “aesthetic principle,” which both explained this “disaster” of the native and was supposed to overcome it through the aestheticization of the popular sources. The aesthetic principle was thus a way of bringing the disaster to language. The chapter discusses the connection (or absence thereof) between the disaster presupposed by philology (and inherent in the native) and the historical catastrophe that befell the Armenians of the Ottoman empire. Daniel Varuzhan is read as one of these “writers of disaster” who tried to cope with the catastrophe.Less

Introduction

in Juan Goytisolo and the Poetics of Contagion: The Evolution of a Radical Aesthetic in the Later Novels

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the evolution of the radical aesthetics in the novels of Spanish author Juan Goytisolo beginning in the period after the ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the evolution of the radical aesthetics in the novels of Spanish author Juan Goytisolo beginning in the period after the publication of Señas de identidad in 1966. This volume examines the manifestations of the aesthetic principles in some of Goytisolo's works including Reivindicación del conde don Julián, Juan sin tierra, and Makbara. It also describes Goytisolo's attempts to translate social concerns into aesthetic practice in his post–1966 works.Less

Conclusion: After Makbara

in Juan Goytisolo and the Poetics of Contagion: The Evolution of a Radical Aesthetic in the Later Novels

This chapter examines the changes in the aesthetic principles in Juan Goytisolo's novels after Makbara. It analyses some of Goytisolo's major works of the 1980s and1990s, including Las virtudes del ... More

This chapter examines the changes in the aesthetic principles in Juan Goytisolo's novels after Makbara. It analyses some of Goytisolo's major works of the 1980s and1990s, including Las virtudes del pájaro solitario, La cuarentena, and Las semanas del jardín. The analysis indicates that while Goytisolo incorporate new elements, the fundamental concerns remain the same because they are already established points of moral and aesthetic principle at this stage. This chapter also highlights the two broad characteristics of Goytisolo's 1980s and 1990s novels: a pronounced development of the postmodernist nature of the writing and an equally noticeable spiritual turn.Less

Fontenelle: Unveiling the Spectacle of the World

in Fictions of the Cosmos: Science and Literature in the Seventeenth Century

This chapter examines Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's book Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds. It analyzes how this book articulated the notions of a philosophical and aesthetic principle, a ... More

This chapter examines Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's book Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds. It analyzes how this book articulated the notions of a philosophical and aesthetic principle, a poetic and epistemological notion and mode of organizing discourse in defense of Copernican space. This chapter also describes how Fontenelle integrated fictional elements in this book.Less

Illustration, Edification and Delusion in Degrés

in Signs and Designs: Art and Architecture in the Work of Michel Butor

This chapter examines the role of the numerous references to various types of visual representation that appear in Michel Butor's novel Degrés. It analyzes the contribution of these visual references ... More

This chapter examines the role of the numerous references to various types of visual representation that appear in Michel Butor's novel Degrés. It analyzes the contribution of these visual references in the principal themes of the novel which include imperialism, education, exploitation and exploration. It also considers the metafictional functions performed by some of the pedagogic visual aids used by the teachers and pupils in the school of protagonist Pierre Vernier and suggests that they were organized into series or clusters to foreground the dominant structural features of the novel or to draw attention to more general aesthetic principles or problems.Less