Que les règles de l’art ne sont pas forcément une si mauvaise chose : l’esthétique normative selon Alexander Pope et Philip Pullman.

Abstract

The concept of “rules of art” feels, in the context of 21st-century aesthetics and critical discourse, like an antiquated idea with unsound theoretical bases (it is by definition at odds with Kantian aesthetic subjectivism) and authoritarian undertones (regulating art being often seen as political censorship). The purpose of this article is to play Devil’s advocate and make the case for rules of arts, in defense of what could be called aesthetic normativity, through a commentary of critical writings by Augustan age poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and contemporary novelist Philip Pullman (*1946). The introduction presents this project from an historical and critical perspective; Pope’s and Pullman’s views of aesthetic normativity are then discussed in succession, on the basis of which the conclusion offers answers to anti-normativism, and a definition of aesthetic normativity as a beneficial framework for the democratic discussion of artistic works and processes.