Wounded attachments and wounded aesthetics: Wendy Brown, Philip Roth, and a modest theory concerning the interaction of art and politics

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay, I develop a healthy way for aesthetics to interact with political society. In States of Injury, Wendy Brown argues that left-wing identity politics equates to Nietzschean ressentiment, which uses relative weakness to assume moral or ethical supremacy. Brown uses the expression “wounded attachments” to describe politics that allows suffering to establish an advantaged perspective and group identity. I argue that a comparable phenomenon occurs in aesthetics. Some aesthetics are linked to a notion of a sub-group or political message, and proponents of that message forgive art for mediocrity. Borrowing Brown’s nomenclature, I call this “wounded aesthetics.” I establish the roots of wounded aesthetics in Adorno and its expression in such popular forms as Oprah Winfrey’s book club. I contrast this with Philip Roth’s novel American Pastoral, asserting that when modern culture examines only art’s explicit message – its content – then art’s value qua art and its relation to politics is problematic. Using Roth, Derrida, and Heidegger, I offer a modest argument in favor of healthy aesthetics.