Savoring Disgust

The Foul and the Fair in Aesthetics
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-975693-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 346 g

This book is a fresh approach to the old problem of why emotions that are considered "negative" when experienced in practical life are often valued and sought after in art.
The author employs contemporary emotion theory to illuminate the role that disgust can play as an aesthetic response.
This book demonstrates that disgust can take many forms, from subtle and slight to extreme and revolting.
Recent philosophical theory has revived interest in sense experience. This book pursues the artistic uses of the so-called "lower" senses by examining disgust, an emotion accompanied by a palpable physical response.

Disgust is among the strongest of aversions, characterized by involuntary physical recoil and even nausea. Yet paradoxically, disgusting objects can sometimes exert a grisly allure, and this emotion can constitute a positive, appreciative aesthetic response when exploited by works of art -- a phenomenon labelled here "aesthetic disgust." While the reactive, visceral quality of disgust contributes to ist misleading reputation as a relatively "primitive" response mechanism, it is this feature that also gives it a particular aesthetic power when manifest in art.
Most treatments of disgust mistakenly interpret it as only an extreme response, thereby neglecting the many subtle ways that it operates aesthetically. This study calls attention to the diversity and depth of ist uses, analyzing the emotion in detail and considering the enormous variety of aesthetic forms it can assume in works of art and --unexpectedly-- even in foods.

In the process of articulating a positive role for disgust, this book examines the nature of aesthetic apprehension and argues for the distinctive mode of cognition that disgust affords -- an intimate apprehension of physical mortality. Despite some commonalities attached to the meaning of disgust, this emotion assumes many aesthetic forms: it can be funny, profound, witty, ironic, unsettling, sorrowful, or gross. To demonstrate this diversity, several chapters review examples of disgust as it is aroused by art. The book ends by investigating to what extent disgust can be discovered in art that is also considered beautiful.

Zielgruppe

Professional and advanced students of philosophy, english, and cultural studies, as well as upper division and graduate philosophy courses in aesthetics and philosophy of art.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Korsmeyer, Carolyn

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Materielle Kultur, Wirtschaftsethnologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Kunsttheorie, Kunstphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: What Is Disgust?
Chapter 2: Attractive Aversions
Chapter 3: Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting
Chapter 4: Varieties of Aesthetic Disgust
Chapter 5: The Magnetism of Disgust
Chapter 6: Hearts
Chapter 7: The Foul and the Fair
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Carolyn Korsmeyer, Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo