Week 8 - PoliticsVsArt

Question 1

BOOK BANNERS’ POLITICS OF LITERATURE

Answer 1

-Views literature primarily in terms of its content (e.g. political, religious, sexual moral).

-Assumes DIDACTIC(intended to teach) nature of literature.

-Views literature above all as INSTRUMENTAL- it serves an end other than itself- political, religious, educational.

-Keywords associated with this view of art (negative or positive, depending on perspective):

“didactic,”
“propaganda,”
“moralistic,’
“ideological,”
“sermon,”
“politically correct” “Prescriptive”

-“Political” view tolerates/advocates for art & literature it tends to promote IDEALIZED REPRESENTATIONS that conform to political, religious, cultural ideas (attacks on “realism”)

-Art as imitation and assumption that it provokes imitation.

Question 2

FREE WRITERS’ AND READERS’ POLITICS OF LITERATURE

Answer 2

-Views primarily in terms of its FORM (e.g., intentional fictionality, artistic revelations, style).

-Assumes AESTHETIC nature of literature.

-Sees as a free activity-its OWN JUSTIFICATION, “autotelic” (end in itself), or in service first to aesthetic ends: DISINTERESTED PLEASURE IN WHAT’S BEAUTIFUL (ENTERTAINING).

-KEYWORDS associated with this view of art (negative or positive, depending on perspective):

“Formalist,”
“Aestheticist”
“Art for art’s sake”
“Fictional”
“play”
“Subversive” (undermine the power of authority.
“Free”
“Decadent” (characterized by or reflecting a state of moral or cultural decline).

-This “political” view demands AESTHETIC FREEDOM WITH WHICH ARTISTS CREATE IDIOSYNCRATIC, IMAGINATIVE REPRESENTATIONS that can reveal potentially universally recognizable truths– or simply pure forms. Assumes people’s capacity for aesthetic distance.

-Art is autotelic.

-Necessary as a form of communication bridging private selves & articulating human experiences, thoughts, feelings.

-