1st Edition

The Aesthetics of Self-Becoming How Art Forms Empower

By Paul Crowther Copyright 2019
    172 Pages
    by Routledge

    170 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book shows that art involves an aesthetics of self-becoming, wherein we do not simply consume artistic meaning, but become empowered—by adapting ourselves to what creation in the different art forms makes possible. Paul Crowther argues that the great political task in aesthetics is no longer the creation of political art as such, but rather the winning back of art and aesthetics as central societal concerns. This involves the overcoming of neo-liberal treatments of art as mere commodity and misguided attitudes that dismiss it as the product of dead white European males. The book begins with a theory of self-consciousness which reveals the necessary role played by the aesthetic in personal identity. It then emphasises how art forms empower through processes of making and aesthetic effects that are unique to them individually. To show this, he considers the ontology of pictorial art, sculpture, installation and assemblage works, architecture, literature, cinema, and music. His arguments concerning these are supported, throughout, by in-depth discussions of specific artworks. The book’s effect, overall is to reorientate aesthetics by showing how art empowers through its revelation of new possibilities of experience.



    The Aesthetics of Self-Becoming will appeal to philosophers of art and aesthetics, as well as scholars in art history, literary studies, film studies, and music theory who are interested in the book’s central concerns.

    Introduction: The Politics of Artistic Creation



    Chapter 1 - Conditions of Self-Consciousness: The Necessity of the Aesthetic



    Chapter 2 – The Depths of Pictorial Art



    Chapter 3 - Hyperbodiment and Aesthetic Meaning in Film



    Chapter 4 - The Intimacy of Reading: Literature as Art



    Chapter 5 – A Little Theatre…



    Chapter 6 – Music As Education



    Chapter 7 - Arts in the Digital Age

    Biography

    Paul Crowther is Professor of Philosophy at Alma Mater Europaea – Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His recent books include Digital Art, Aesthetic Creation: The Birth of a Medium (Routledge, 2019) and What Drawing and Painting Really Mean: The Phenomenology of Image and Gesture (Routledge, 2017)

    "Crowther is sensitive to analytical issues of definition, but his challenge is far bigger: what is the political relevance of art in contemporary culture? He makes his point convincingly, through detailed analyses of works of all kinds. And he is right: art is a saviour."Rob van Gerwen, Utrecht University