Wendy Steiner
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231156172
- eISBN:
- 9780231520775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231156172.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter returns to an older tradition of aesthetics, one inextricably linked to ideas about beauty. It focuses on an aesthetic category—such as beauty—as the ground of relation, as the source of ...
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This chapter returns to an older tradition of aesthetics, one inextricably linked to ideas about beauty. It focuses on an aesthetic category—such as beauty—as the ground of relation, as the source of sociality. Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, “The Birthmark,” is emblematic of the killing effects of the quest for perfection, which is then traced through twentieth-century texts, such as Christopher Bram's Father of Frankenstein, the writings of Harvard ethicist Michael J. Sandel, and ending with the film musical Hairspray. To think of “beauty as an interaction” is to understand that interaction as ethical or unethical.“The Birthmark” represents the latter, Hairspray the former inasmuch as it makes the case not for gender unmoored from the constraints of convention but rather for a democratizing ethics of imperfection.Less
This chapter returns to an older tradition of aesthetics, one inextricably linked to ideas about beauty. It focuses on an aesthetic category—such as beauty—as the ground of relation, as the source of sociality. Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, “The Birthmark,” is emblematic of the killing effects of the quest for perfection, which is then traced through twentieth-century texts, such as Christopher Bram's Father of Frankenstein, the writings of Harvard ethicist Michael J. Sandel, and ending with the film musical Hairspray. To think of “beauty as an interaction” is to understand that interaction as ethical or unethical.“The Birthmark” represents the latter, Hairspray the former inasmuch as it makes the case not for gender unmoored from the constraints of convention but rather for a democratizing ethics of imperfection.
Bernadette Wegenstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262232678
- eISBN:
- 9780262301114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262232678.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Plato, who coined the term kal ó kagatheia to express the quality of being raised correctly, believed that outer beauty and beauty of the soul go hand in hand. This chapter deals with the dark side ...
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Plato, who coined the term kal ó kagatheia to express the quality of being raised correctly, believed that outer beauty and beauty of the soul go hand in hand. This chapter deals with the dark side of beauty. The author has taken the example of Nadja, the surrealist novel by Andre Breton, to explore the concepts of “other beauty” and “beauty’s hell.” The chapter also explains the dark side of beauty by taking the example of the birthmark. This feeling is so acute that a birthmark on the cheek of a beautiful woman becomes a deformity. Michael Jackson is an example of this dark side of beauty because he used the cosmetic gaze to transcend his ethnicity (from being an African American).Less
Plato, who coined the term kal ó kagatheia to express the quality of being raised correctly, believed that outer beauty and beauty of the soul go hand in hand. This chapter deals with the dark side of beauty. The author has taken the example of Nadja, the surrealist novel by Andre Breton, to explore the concepts of “other beauty” and “beauty’s hell.” The chapter also explains the dark side of beauty by taking the example of the birthmark. This feeling is so acute that a birthmark on the cheek of a beautiful woman becomes a deformity. Michael Jackson is an example of this dark side of beauty because he used the cosmetic gaze to transcend his ethnicity (from being an African American).
