Furthering my initial research into my chosen theme of aesthetics, I had identified this essay from Kalar as an interesting source for discussion through it's connections with philosophical interpretations of aesthetics and taste; The Demands of Taste in Kant's Aesthetics. Kalar discusses the root of taste and how we conform to expectations of taste as a societal code.
An interesting idea raised by Kalar is the issue of sentimentality and how this sways any sort of suggested or organic opinion of aesthetic, recognizing that the individual remains conscious in their view and operation of taste. Relating to my chosen quote from Susan Sontag; "Rules of taste enforce structures of power', Kalar seems primarily to argue against this idea, largely focusing on the subjectivity of taste and the worth of all tastes. However he does discuss our insecurities.
KEY QUOTES AND INITIAL ANALYSIS
- "Our natural response to 'whatever departs widely from our own taste and apprehension' is to condemn it as 'barbarous'. However, once we discover that the other side has the same opinion of our taste, we become more hesitant about pronouncing positively in our own favour."
Evidently we are insecure in our own taste as we know of 'the other' taste and so we cannot be confident to promote a subjective and independent view of taste since we are unable to accept our own.
- "all tastes are of equal worth, that no one person's taste is better than another's"
Kalar seems to suggest that structures of power don't exist in the sense that we have our own taste, until we question it based on another's. He recognizes that we all have a right to 'taste' differently and as such, seems to challenge Sontag's idea of 'rule of taste' in suggesting that taste is without rule or code.
- "judgements of taste are really just expressions of sentiment, and 'all sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, whenever a man is conscious of it' "
It is possible that since sentimentality is personal, taste relies on our own connection with the subject, sentimentality may in fact play above popularity and fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment