Everyday Aesthetics

346 Pages·2007·3.15 MB·English

by  Katya Mandoki

EVERYDAY AESTHETICS
To the Memory of my Father, Gheorghe Mándoki
Everyday Aesthetics
Prosaics, the Play of Culture and Social Identities
KATYA MANDOKI
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
© Katya Mandoki 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Katya Mandoki has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405
Hampshire GU11 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mandoki, Katya
Everyday aesthetics : prosaics, the play of culture and
social identities
1. Aesthetics
I. Title
111.8'5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mandoki, Katya, 1947-
Everyday aesthetics : prosaics, the play of culture, and social identities / Katya
Mandoki.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-7546-5889-4 (hardcover)
1. Aesthetics. I. Title.
BH39.M38 2007
111'.85--dc22
2006019740
ISBN: 978-0-7546-5889-4
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Contents
List of Tables x
Glossary xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgement xviii
PART 1 THE LABYRINTHS OF AESTHETICS 1
Chapter 1 The Problems of Aesthetics 3
Problems of definition 3
Problems of location 3
Problems of distinction 5
Chapter 2 The Fetishes of Aesthetics 7
The fetish of beauty 7
The fetish of the artwork 8
The fetish of the aesthetic object 10
Chapter 3 The Myths of Aesthetics 15
The myth of the opposition art/reality and aesthetics/everyday life 15
The myth of aesthetic disinterest 17
The myth of aesthetic distance 19
The myth of the aesthetic attitude 22
The myth of aesthetic aspects or qualities 24
The myth of the universality of beauty 26
The myth of the opposition between the aesthetic
and the intellectual 27
The myth of the synonymity of art and aesthetics 29
The myth of the aesthetic potentiality of artworks 30
The myth of the aesthetic experience 31
Chapter 4 The Fears of Aesthetics 37
The fear of the undesirable 37
The fear of everyday impurities 38
The fear of psychologism 39
The fear of the immoral 40
vi Everyday Aesthetics
PART 2 ON AESTHESIS 43
Chapter 5 Demarcating Aesthetics 45
A genealogical perspective for a bio-aesthetics 47
Bio-aesthetics 49
Socio-aesthetics 50
Chapter 6 Basic Categories for Aesthetic Analysis 53
Aesthetic subject and aesthetic object 53
Objectivity, objectuality, and objectivation 55
Subjectivity, individuality, identity, role 57
Chapter 7 Conditions of Possibility of Aesthesis: The A Priori 61
Space-time 61
The body 62
Vital energy 63
Cultural conventions 64
Chapter 8 The Phenomenology of Aesthesis: Aesthetic Latching-On
and Latched-By 67
PART 3 TOWARDS PROSAICS 73
Prosaics and panaestheticism 73
Chapter 9 Prosaics and Poetics 75
Poesics and prosics 79
Chapter 10 The Tangents of Prosaics 81
Chapter 11 The Nutrients of Prosaics 87
Mikhail Bakhtin 87
John Dewey 88
Johan Huizinga 90
Chapter 12 The Play of Culture 93
Categorization of games by Caillois 94
Chapter 13 The Horizons of Prosaics 97
PART 4 SEMIO-AESTHETICS 101
Semio-aesthetics and aesthesio-semiotics 101
Chapter 14 Thresholds of Semiotic Perception: Sensation, Discernment
and Regard 105
Contents vii
Chapter 15 The Axis of the Signic 109
Signifier 111
Signified 112
Chapter 16 The Axis of the Symbolic 115
Chapter 17 Comparative View of Both Axes: The Symbolic and the Signic 119
Chapter 18 The Non-Axis of the Obtuse 125
Chapter 19 Beyond Semiosis to Aesthesis 127
Chapter 20 Aesthetic Enunciation and its Dialogical Character 131
Aesthetic syntagm and paradigm 133
PART 5 OCTADIC MODEL FOR AESTHETIC ANALYSIS 135
The projection of the semiotic axes to the aesthetic 136
Chapter 21 Rhetoric and its Registers 139
Lexic register 142
Acoustic register 143
Somatic register 144
Scopic register 146
Chapter 22 Dramatics and its Modalities 149
Proxemics 149
Kinetics 151
Emphatics 152
Fluxion 152
Chapter 23 The Rhetoric-Dramatic Coupling 155
Lexic proxemics 155
Acoustic proxemics 156
Somatic proxemics 156
Scopic proxemics 157
Lexic kinetics 157
Acoustic kinetics 158
Somatic kinetics 158
Scopic kinetics 158
Lexic emphatics 159
Acoustic emphatics 160
Somatic emphatics 161
Scopicemphatics 161
Lexic fluxion 162
Acoustic fluxion 163
viii Everyday Aesthetics
Somatic fluxion 164
Scopic fluxion 164
Chapter 24 Con-Formations of the Rhetoric-Dramatic Coupling 169
Heteroglossia 170
Polyphony 172
Hybridization 173
Ex-pression, im-pression, com-pression, de-pression 173
PART 6 MATRIXES AND IDENTITIES 177
Chapter 25 The Matrixes: A General Approach 179
Matrixes and paradigms 182
Chapter 26 Diachronic and Synchronic Perspective of Cultural Matrixes 185
Diachronic perspective of the matrixes 186
Synchronic perspective of the matrixes 187
Chapter 27 The Family Matrix 195
The registers of rhetorics in the family matrix 196
The modalities of the dramatic in the family matrix 198
Family proxemics 198
Family kinetics 199
Family emphatics 200
Family fluxion 201
Paradigmatic projections in the family matrix 203
Chapter 28 The Religion Matrix 205
Judaic religious matrix 207
Christian religious matrix 213
Islamic religious matrix 219
A parallel approach to dramatics in the religious matrix 226
Religious fluxion 233
Final considerations of the religious matrix 234
Paradigmatic projection of and in the religious matrix 235
Chapter 29 The School Matrix 237
School rhetorics 238
School dramatics 239
Paradigmatic projection of the school matrix 246
Chapter 30 The Medical Matrix 247
Medical rhetorics 247
Medical dramatics 250
Medical emphatics 252
Paradigmatic projection in and from the medical matrix 255
Contents ix
Chapter 31 The Occultist Matrix 257
Occultist rhetorics 258
Occultist dramatics 261
Paradigmatic projection in the occultist matrix 266
Chapter 32 The Arts Matrix 269
The registers of the rhetoric in the artistic matrix 273
Modalities of artistic dramatics 283
Paradigm projections related to the artistic matrix 293
Conclusions Matricial Symbols and Aesthetic Games 295
References 301
Index 313