Aesthetic Categories Research Articles

The Offences of the Imagination: The Grotesque in Kant’s Aesthetics

Abstract In the Critique of the Power of Judgement, Kant claims that ‘the English taste in gardens or the baroque taste in furniture pushes the freedom of the imagination almost to the point of the grotesque’ (KU 5:242). This paper attempts to reconstruct Kant’s views on the grotesque as a theoretical foundation for the modern conception of the grotesque as a negative aesthetic category. The first section of the paper considers and ultimately rejects the interpretation of the grotesque as a difficult kind of beauty. The second section contrasts the experience of the grotesque with similar experiences of sublimity and dreams. The third section examines the discord between faculties underlying the experience of the grotesque, defining the grotesque as a subclass of ugliness and addressing potential objections to its inclusion in Kant’s aesthetics. The fourth and final section briefly discusses the specificity of the grotesque as a subclass of ugliness.

In the World of Potentiality: Gombrowicz, Pinter, Beckett, and Różewicz

This article attempts to analyze Witold Gombrowicz`s, Harold Pinter`s, Samuel Beckett`s, and Tadeusz Różewicz’s works by using methods that are associated with performative literary studies. The author refers to concepts of quantum physics and introduces a new aesthetic category, “entangled arts”. Among these arts are, for example, drama and theater, which are seen from an anti-binary perspective. This approach eliminates the traditional division of arts into the art of literature and performing arts, thus leading us to look on literature as a performing art. Therefore, the idea of “entangled arts” is not about “the synthesis of arts”, but about their unresolvedness and an act of reading which requires one to simultaneously exist and be active in two (or more, potentiality) different realities, for example, in a digital and imagined world, or in film and on stage.

<em>Mimesis</em> und <em>Methexis:</em> Skizze einer Poetik der Teilhabe für die Gegenwart

The paper draws on the history of the concept of participation (methexis) in its conflictual relation to imitation or representation (mimesis) for a deepened understanding of identity-related questions in contemporary literature. Plato subjected mimesis to rigorous critique in favor of participation in 'ideas'. In contrast, the history of poetics since Aristotle develops along the valorization of mimesis, while participation here was not understood as an aesthetic category at all. In a synoptic overview, the first part of the paper argues, that mimesis and methexis can only be understood in their dialectic relationship as modern literature has witnessed a periodic return of the problem of participation in poetics. Against the background of this dialectic, the specific profile of contemporary literature and its treatment of questions related to identity becomes visible. The second part of the paper shows this with regard to Olivia Wenzel's novel 1000 serpentinen angst (2020) and Kim de l'Horizon's Blutbuch (2020), that articulate two very different poetic traditions of methexis.

In Search of Beauty Formula

The main category of aesthetics — beauty is the focus of the study. Our epoch is a revision of some spiritual meanings both in the sphere of human life and in science and art. The aim of this paper is to derive a universal formula of beauty through the image of Venus on the basis of a comparative analysis of works of classical art, art of postmodernity, as well as to determine the possibilities of modern neural networks. Art of the 21st century is multifaceted, neuro-art is another of its aspects, artificial intelligence and Man of Art compete here. Neural network is a program built on the principle of organisation and functioning of nerve cells of a living organism. The neural network was tasked to represent the modern ideal of beauty in the image of Venus, similar to the way painters of previous epochs acted. Can modern neural networks create? Create spiritual values? Create beauty in art? In total, more than a thousand images were generated according to our requests, which allows us to draw certain conclusions about the representation of the image of Venus by artificial intelligence. An attempt to derive a formula of beauty for each period of art development and to find a universal one is presented. The modern understanding of beauty has absorbed all historical paradigms, but on a qualitative, essential level. Beauty is a subjective sensual perception of the appearance of an object that is capable of evoking positive emotions. It is not the beauty itself that is important, but the feeling of beauty. Beauty is the dominant value of being, which contains a harmonious combination of absolute values, what makes a person a Personality.

Neural correlates of the experience of ugliness.

Previous studies have shown that the experience of beauty is dependent upon the co-activity of field A1 of the medial frontal cortex and sensory areas. This leaves us with the question of ugliness; are the same neural mechanisms involved in this experience, including neural activity patterns, or are different mechanisms at play? This question arises because ugliness, although often regarded as the opposite of beauty, could possibly be a distinct aesthetic category. Subjects were asked to rate faces according to how ugly they found them to be while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. There was moderate agreement in the experience of ugliness of faces among subjects. Univariate parametric analyses did not reveal any brain regions with increasing activity as the declared intensity of the experience of ugliness increased. In contrast, increasing activity appeared in the striatum and posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex with decreasing levels of ugliness. As with studies on facial beauty, representational similarity analysis revealed distinct neural activity patterns with the experience of facial ugliness in sensory areas relevant for face processing and in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Thus, similar neural mechanisms appear to be involved in the experience of facial beauty and ugliness, the difference being the level and distribution of activity within the neural network. This suggests that ugliness and beauty are on the same aesthetic continuum.

The creation of artistic / aesthetic values within the choreographic art education

Choreographic art is not only a rich treasure trove of artistic/aesthetic values, but also a process that involves and makes responsible individualities, through its specific means of reflecting the surrounding world. The development of artistic/aesthetic values within the education of choreographic art is closely related to the creation of the artistic image (the work of art) and the assimilation through activities of creative thinking in images and artistic thinking. Artistic thinking largely includes elements and structures of logical thinking that are expressed in compositions, drawings and choreographic techniques. Aesthetics is the product of a spiritual activity, which appeared within individual perception and appreciation. The categories of aesthetics/ beauty, through their invaluable significance, develop not only the creative thinking of the future choreographer, but also form his value/aesthetic orientations, which consequently determine his life position. Beauty represents an aesthetic category of the highest aesthetic value that has the ability to characterize choreographic works from the performance point of view.

Art and Language After AI

By ingesting a vast corpus of source material, generative deep learning models are capable of encoding multi-modal data into a shared embedding space, producing synthetic outputs which cannot be decomposed into their constituent parts. These models call into question the relation of conceptualisation and production in creative practices spanning musical composition to visual art. Moreover, artificial intelligence as a research program poses deeper questions regarding the very nature of aesthetic categories and their constitution. In this essay I will consider the intelligibility of the art object through the lens of a particular family of machine learning models, known as ‘latent diffusion’, extending an aesthetic theory to complement the image of thought the models (re)present to us. This will lead to a discussion on the semantics of computational states, probing the inferential and referential capacities of said models. Throughout I will endorse a topological view of computation, which will inform the neural turn in computer science, characterised as a shift from the notion of a stored program to that of a cognitive model. Lastly, I will look at the instability of these models by analysing their limitations in terms of compositionality and grounding.

Towards an Abolitionist Concept of Beauty: The Aesthetics of Counter-Communities

Abstract: Many oppressed groups describe their forms of life in aesthetic categories. This article explores the implicit conception of beauty and the shared characteristics of counter-communal aesthetic practices. It reconstructs the hegemonic conception of beauty via a reading of Schiller and explores two exemplary discourses on the beauty of counter-communities: Peter Weiss' reflections on the aesthetics of resistance and Saidiya Hartman's description of Black fugitive aesthetics. What both examples share is that they locate beauty not in harmony, but in conflict and struggle. They lay the foundation for an aesthetic standpoint theory: counter-communities are economically, politically and culturally marginalized, but they are more beautiful than dominant forms of life.

Исследование творчества А.Ф. Лосева в Китае

The article gives a comprehensive overview of the research of Aleksei F. Losev's works and intellectual heritage in China. It is noted that since the first publication about Losev in China since 1988 extensive achievements in this field have appeared. The information and the analysis about the results of researches of the Chinese specialists from different generations are presented. The main innovative aspects are revealed on the example of the study of Losev's aesthetic thought by the author of the article: comparison of the concepts and categories of Western and Chinese aesthetics related to Losev's philosophy. The peculiarities of the poetics of Losev's musical-philosophical prose and his “Eros” writing are revealed. The artistic world of Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered with the help of Losev's aesthetic theory of the symbol. The author believes that the study of Losev in China is on the rise and has broad prospects.

Absurdism: Aesthetic category in the story “Un grito” (1947) by Carlos Salazar Herrera

The purpose of this article is to analyze the features of Camusian absurdism present in the short story “Un grito” (“A Scream”) (1947), by the Costa Rican writer Carlos Salazar Herrera. Specifically, it will focus on the expression of the absurdism and what this category implies in the configuration of the textual interweaving of the story. As theoretical-methodological references, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) by the Algerian-French writer Albert Camus, and the theory of intertextuality by Julia Kristeva (1978). In this analysis, it was proved that in the text under study there are elements of the absurdism that demonstrate the influence of Camusian thought in Salazar Herrera’s storytelling.

Ambivalence of kawaii as a phenomenon of modern aesthetics in Japan

The author analyzes various aspects of the modern popular culture of kawaii. The connection between sweetness and the terrible in kawaii aesthetics is clarified. It is emphasized that the roots of kawaii go back to the Japanese culture of the past and today's total spread of the cute in Japanese everyday life is reflected in politics, government, business, the military complex, art, influencing all spheres of society and manifesting itself as a key component of the national identity of the Japanese. Attention is focused on the aesthetic category of yami-kawaii. Creepy kawaii understands the works of Japanese artists and the youth subculture. The connection of kawaii and yami-kawaii is shown. The subject of the study is the images of Japanese artists of the XX – XXI centuries. A characteristic feature of the art of which is the excessive depiction of the cute, indicating a connection with modernity. Comparative historical and iconographic research methods based on cultural, philosophical, and art historical scientific materials were used. The relevance of the topic is due to the need to explore new trends in art, with the need to rethink classical, aesthetic categories, in connection with the catastrophes of the XX – XXI centuries, which changed European culture and left an indelible mark on Japanese culture. The novelty of the research lies in an attempt to analyze the phenomenon of kawaii in a dual aspect: kawaii of the sweet and kawaii of the terrible in the art of Japanese artists, based on the phenomenon of fear as the driving force of yami-kawaii, as well as using the aesthetic category of "kawaii" as an all-pervading characteristic of mass culture. The yami-kawaii style is an independent aesthetic category, widespread by the youth subculture. The popularity of the "sick" kawaii as a crude grim reality is applied in the marketing of the industrial industry. Infantilism manifests itself as a defense, a psychological barrier in search of support and sympathy. The aesthetics of kawaii mildness acts as one side of the coin, the other is the internal conflict of society – fear, helplessness, depression. The yami-kawaii subculture is an expression of the aesthetic phenomenon of suffering and fear.

Observații filosofice despre arhitectura religioasă și arta sacră

This article tackles the aesthetic implications of religious architecture, somehow outshined by dominant metaphysical undertakings of the sacred space. The first part of this study deals with the interpretation of the principles of religious architecture explained by Vitruvius and their impact on the German and Scottish Enlightenment. The second part sheds light on the Kantian approach of the religious space through the aesthetic category of the sublime in its two paradigms – mathematical and dynamical – closely observing to what extent they support Kant’s intention to project religion within the limits of reason. From here, the research tracks the inheritance of these traditions reflected by Hegel’s Lectures of Aesthetics, for whom the architecture is embedded in the so-called symbolic art, one of the three major components of the system of arts. In the end, we will see how modern philosophy leaves a last trace of interest on religious architecture and the phenomenon of living in some Heideggerian writings, but without any aesthetic intention. We will check what the possibility of a theological program of religious architecture still means at the end of modernity, relying on some notes of Le Corbusier, and how we can recover a traditional model of religious architecture, which can explain the aesthetic experience beyond the metaphysical one, in the Eastern Orthodox Romanian mental space.

Tragic Elements in M. Dulatov’s Poem ‘Qaida edıñ’? (Where Were You?)

The relevance of this article is justified by the necessity to construct a comprehensive picture of the development of Kazakh literature at the beginning of the 20th century through the analysis of tragic elements in the works of Myrzakhyp Dulatov. The authors critically evaluate various approaches to studying this aesthetic category in the works of I.I. Plekhanova, V.E. Khalizev, and E.V. Volkova. The scientific novelty lies in the first-time analysis of the poem ‘Qaida edıñ?’ (Where were you?) from the declared perspective. The research establishes that, firstly, tragic events (specifically, the forcible mobilization of Kazakhs for participation in World War I and famine) form the narrative basis of this poem. Secondly, antithesis serves as a significant means of conveying tragedy. Thirdly, the Kazakh worldview (steppe — land — Alash — people) depicted in this poem intricately intertwines with tragic hopelessness, where the semantic boundaries of the concept PEOPLE encompass human life values: steppe, family, lineage, generational ties, life. Fourthly, syntactic parallelism, various forms of repetition, rhetorical questioning, and other poetic devices aid the author in expressing their own viewpoint and engaging the reader in the quest to identify the culprit behind tragic events.

Интерпретация категории фантастического в малой прозе Дино Буццати

The purpose of the study is to explain the specifics of the category of the fantastic in the short stories of the 20th-century Italian writer Dino Buzzati. The article examines the features of the interpretation of the fantastic by a writer known for his special approach to the philosophical and aesthetic category that has remained relevant for several centuries. The choice of different collections of short stories for the study is due to the need to analyze the category of the fantastic using the examples of texts separated by a time distance. Over the years, the writer has remained true to the principles of interpretation of the fantastic that he once defined. The scientific novelty of the work is related to the identification of several types of the category of the fantastic in the material of Dino Buzzati’s short stories in accordance with the writer’s concept of the fantastic. As a result of the study, it was found that for Dino Buzzati, the fantastic is not something exceptional, opposed to reality. The category of the unreal is associated with the motives of expectation and fear, which allow a more accurate interpretation of the features of the studied category. In the analyzed stories, the types of the actually fantastic, the conditionally fantastic, and the symbolic fantastic are distinguished. The connection between the categories of the absurd and the fantastic is significant. The category of the incredible occupies an important place in Dino Buzzati’s aesthetic system, influencing its development.

The metaphor of kitsch in Caragiale's work. A Stormy Night & Company at "Tudor Vianu" Theatre Giurgiu

Kitsch, this aesthetic category developed in the second half of the 20th century, was one of Caragiale's points of interest, describing through it the shabby and ambitious world of a state that wanted at all costs to align itself with its Western European models. Surprised in various forms, kitsch can be found in the substratum of Caragiale's literature, underlined scenically by the performance of A Stormy Night & Company at the ”Tudor Vianu” Theatre in Giurgiu, which serves as an argument. Moreover, kitsch can become an epithet attributed to man, easily found in the theatre proposed for analysis.

The aesthetic component of the revolution in the context of the aesthetics of history

The author of the article raises the question of the aesthetic content of the real historical process. The article examines history as a dramatic space of human development, as a locus and topos of the manifestation of his creative abilities, as a process that can be studied and described in the categories of classical aesthetics. According to the author, the objective course of history itself has aesthetic characteristics, which makes it possible to use the concepts and categories of aesthetics in the study of historical events. The source of the aesthetic fullness of a historical event is the creative nature of human activity in general, the revolutionary impulse, heroic enthusiasm and creative potential of mass popular movements. The phenomenon of social revolution is presented as an event in which the aesthetic component of historical action is concentrated. The global revolutionary social shifts of our time are largely achieved through the selfless steps and inspired social creativity of popular movements, whose participants, whether they realize it or not, are engaged in practical, often heroic, transformation of an imperfect world and the creation of a new, more perfect one, the harmony of which is revealed as constructive solvability contradictions.

Discourse of Expression of Image Representations in Contemporary Audiovisual Culture

The presented study deals with the issue of the discourse of pictorial portrayals in present-day audiovisual culture. The authors aim to find the basic parameters of the current discourse and discursive practices within audiovisual creation, especially film and television. They define basic concepts and categories and submit them to analysis. From this aspect, they examine aesthetic categories, especially aesthetic values ​​and functions in relation to the interpretation of image representations. They formulate the premise that the expressions of visual presentations are reflections of the digital technical-technological platform of audiovisual making, the ethos of postmodernity and postmodernism, and the ideal of consumption of experiences as one of the most important values ​​of present-day Western civilization. In a logical sequence, they deal with the matter of the ethos and value-related frameworks of postmodernism as relevant factors that condition the discursive practices of audiovisual creators. On the other hand, they name the mindsets of individuals, recipients of audiovisual statements, testifying to their specific desires for emotional encounters. They reach the conclusion that the discourse of the expression of visual representations in contemporary audiovisual culture has clearly defined parameters of creative approaches and reception expectations.

The theme of maturation in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Nelle Harper Lee

The article is devoted to the study of narrative and genre features of the famous work of Nelle Harper Lee ‟To Kill a Mockingbird”. It considers such categories of poetics as composition, chronotope and a system of characters. The study analyses the theme of maturation and the traits of ‟southern noir”, traditional and innovative characteristics of the initiation novel. Due to these peculiarities the American writer is not only able to focus on the inner life of the main heroine, but also to present the historical and cultural background of the narrative, as well as to create expressive psychological portraits of the characters. The conclusion is made about the transfer of ideas from human personality formation and maturation to the ethno-racial context, the formation of a specific model of initiation in the American literature. The process of migration of adult literature in children’s literature is noted both at the level of individual storylines and entire narratives. The novel by Harper Lee contains the traits of the initiation novel, as the main semantic dominant theme is maturation through overcoming challenges (social injustice, cruelty, ambivalence of the categories of good and evil). The concept of becoming a person in the work of the writer refers to the origins of the national consciousness: the interaction of nature and civilization, natural and artificial, as well as aesthetic categories of fiction and reality.

The Generation and Transfer of the “Sweet” Category in Calligraphy Appreciation

Ancient Chinese calligraphy theories often “discuss calligraphy by taste”. “Taste” is an essential category of classical Chinese aesthetics, and is a concrete expression of the spirit of Chinese art. In contemporary calligraphic critical discourse, outside of the audiovisual norms, the Chinese calligraphic tradition of “discussing calligraphy by taste” is undoubtedly an ideological resource that cannot be ignored. “Gan”. In English is called “pleasant” and was originally one of the five flavors, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it slowly developed the meaning of “Tian” (sweet) to describe the taste. “Sweet”, as an aesthetic category, appeared in a large number of poetry, calligraphy, and painting theories in the Ming and Qing dynasties and beyond. Since the Tang Dynasty, “Sweet” has been combined with “Vulgar”. The word “Sweet” was formally introduced into the realm of painting and calligraphy appreciation. This article utilizes the theory of aesthetics and combines it with physiology, psychology, and other disciplines to explain discussing calligraphy by “Sweet”. An analysis of the generation and transfer of the category of “Sweet” in the appreciation of calligraphy reveals the mutual borrowing and influence of art theories. After sorting and analyzing, it can be seen that “Sweet” refers to works that are overly modified, not chewable, and have no flavor outside the taste. Or works with too much “craftsmanship”, too much skill, too much ink, and works that are opposite to the beauty of “clumsiness” and “lightness” appreciated by ancient calligraphers.

Il sublime delle stenelle. Riflessioni sull’estetica del whalewatching

ABSTRACT The present article applies some classical categories developed by the early modern tradition of philosophical aesthetics to an area of inquiry that has only recently been studied extensively by contemporary aesthetics. Here I propose to consider the practice of whalewatching as an aesthetic practice, having its specific aesthetic features and peculiarities. To do so, I will cross three very different traditions: the early modern tradition represented by the theorists of the Sublime as an aesthetic category of relevance, developed by many authors in the XVIII century and here presented via the reconstruction of Remo Bodei, the pragmatist, experience-centered aesthetics of John Dewey and the more contemporary, mostly Anglo-American, studies on animal aesthetics as a distinct topic. The discussion of the traditions mentioned is aimed at providing a theoretical framework not only valuable for an analysis of the aesthetic nature of the practice of whalewatching, but also to propose a new category of aesthetic experience, that I call here animal sublime.