Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age / Edition 1

by Emory Elliott, Lou Freitas Caton, Jeffrey Rhyne

Overview

Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age examines a variety of significant multidisciplinary and multicultural topics within the subject of aesthetics. Addressing the vexed relation of the arts and criticism to current political and cultural concerns, the contributors to this volume attempt to bridge the two decades-old gap between scholars and critics who hold conflicting views of the purposes of art and criticism. By exploring some of the ways in which global migration and expanding ethnic diversity are affecting cultural productions and prompting reassessment of the nature and role of aesthetic discourse, this volume provides a new evaluation of aesthetic ideas and practices within contemporary arts and letters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195146332
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/10/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Emory Elliott is University Professor at the University of California, Riverside. Louis Freitas Caton is Professor of English at Auburn University. Jeffrey Rhyne is a graduate fellow in English at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

ContributorsIntroduction: Cultural Diversity and the Problem of Aesthetics, Emory ElliottPART I. CHALLENGES TO AN AESTHETICS OF DIVERSITYCan Our Values Be Objective? On Ethics, Aesthetics, and Progressive Politics, Satya P. MohantyThe Pragmatics of the Aesthetic, Giles GunnAesthetics and Cultural Studies, Winfried FluckThe Resistance to Cultural Studies, John Carlos RowePART II. REDEFINING CATEGORIES OF VALUE AND DIFFERENCEDesegregating American Literary Studies, Shelley Fisher FishkinDifference and Disciplinarity, Robyn WiegmanDoing Justice to C.L.R. James's Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, Donald E. PeaseMumbo Jumbo, Theory, and the Aesthetics of Wholeness, Johnella E. ButlerPART III. AESTHETIC JUDGMENT AND THE PUBLIC SPHEREAesthetics Again? The Pleasures and the Dangers, Paul Lauter"Every man knows where and how beauty gives him pleasure": Beauty Discourse and the Logic of Aesthetics, Amelia JonesThe Aesthetics of Wounding: Trauma, Self-Representation, and the Critical Voice, Kathleen McHughBeautiful Identities: When History Turns State's Evidence, Chon A. NoriegaToward a Pluralist Aesthetics, Heinz IckstadtAfterword, Louis Freitas CatonIndex

Editorial Reviews

"The contributors to this volume all make separate, and mostly compelling, cases for the revitalization of the aesthetic in textual and extra-textual cultural productions.... Valuable for detailing [aesthetics'] continued relevance and even necessity for contemporary cultural study."—Postmodern Culture

"This collection is an important project, the topics addressed by the contributors timely and crucial. Can humanities professors maintain aesthetic values without slipping into elitism? Can they execute political critique without turning ham-fisted and illiberal? Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age is an important step in establishing a middle way, drawing the humanities out of the old Culture Wars contraries and into a more productive, less fractious mode of teaching and research."—Mark Bauerlein, Emory University

"Finally! A book that gets rid of the false opposition between aesthetics and multiculturalism. We live in an exciting time when a vibrant generation of artists and critics are not only championing the aesthetic but are also challenging conventional ideas about exactly what counts as the beautiful. Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age reminds us that poetics and politics often make the coziest of bedfellows."—Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University

From the Publisher