Popular Pleasures : An Introduction to the Aesthetics of Popular Visual Culture

Today’s many popular aesthetic pleasures – sentimental, violent, vulgar, humorous, erotic – have a long history. Popular culture is often thought to have emerged during the 19th century, but the same pleasures generated by today’s popular culture have excited our premodern ancestors for millennia. Popular imagery arouses interest from both the political right and left because both recognize its power to inform, and form, minds. An understanding of aesthetics in relation to visual culture is therefore vital because it is a major means by which ideology is inculcated, so to appreciate its power enhances our understanding of contemporary society. Paul Duncum considers the historical, critical discourses, and socio-political issues raised by aesthetic pleasure in fifteen thematic chapters. Using illustrative examples from the past and the present and across cultures, and drawing principally upon art history, film and cultural studies, as well as philosophical aesthetics, chapters on ‘the vulgar’ explore the British seaside postcard, TV wrestling; in ‘the sentimental’ chapter, he looks at religious painting, Disney films; at Nazi propaganda, in ‘the horrific’; burlesque, and modern advertising, in ‘the erotic’. With this broad historical and international reach, the author demonstrates that the pleasure we draw from popular culture is long-standing and wide-ranging, and challenges the view that these promote the decline of cultural standards. Popular Pleasures introduces readers to the view that popular culture can’t be condemned on the grounds of taste; aesthetic pleasures have often served, and continue to serve, highly problematic causes and issues, but pleasure derived from visual culture is part of our evolutionary inheritance, an important part of what it is to be human, and central to our understanding of contemporary society. Defining aesthetics as sensory, emotional lure, each of fifteen chapters addresses a particular visual culture pleasure: a realistic style, the illusionistic, the bright and busy, the highly emotional, the sentimental, the vulgar, the violent, the horrific, the miraculous, the exotic, the erotic, the spectacular, the narrative, the formulaic, and the humorous. Each is considered in terms of its historical discourse by elite critics; its many and varied lures; and its problematic socio-political issues. Illustrative examples are drawn from the visual culture of the past, the present, and across cultures. Premodern fine art is shown often to appeal to the same pleasures as popular culture. Throughout, the pleasures of today’s popular culture are shown to be perennial and offer no justification for the frequent claim of declining cultural standards. The pleasures themselves are treated as value neutral with criticism directed at the causes they serve. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents Illustrations Copyright Key Introduction But What is Aesthetics? And What is Popular? Popular Pleasures and Politics Previous Attempts So What’s Different Here? The Mind/Body Context Scope and Outline 1 A Realistic Style What is Realism? Idolatry and Ideology The Search for Realism Painting Printing and Photography Screen Imagery The Pleasures of Realism Making Comparisons Appreciating the Skill Evaluating Realism is Easy Pulling Back the Curtain Realism and Reality When Too Much Realism is Bad When Seeing Shouldn’t be Believing Fake versus the Bona Fide Veridical, Virtual, and Verifiable 2 The Illusionistic Illusion versus Realism Magic, Miracles, and the Devil The Persistence of Illusion Trompe l’oeil Three-Dimensional Movies Optical Illusion Devices Stage Magic Magic, Wonder, and Mischief Being Deceived Being in the Know Conflating Realism with Illusion Illusion and Delusion Illusion and Life 3 The Bright and Busy Terms and Taste The Doctrine of Decorum Reason and Restraint Modernist Minimalism The Relativity of Restraint Serious versus Superficial Purpose Brightness and Business Delighting the Eye Enhancing the Ordinary Resisting Restraint Bright, Busy, and Biology The Seriousness of Selling Bright, Busy, and Business 4 The Highly Emotional An Empire of Emotions Emotion versus Emotionalism The Rhetoric of Emotions versus the Aesthetics of Emotions The Theory of Emotional Rhetoric The Pictorial Practice of Rhetoric The Rise of Sentiment Rejecting Rhetoric The Rise of Romanticism Expression versus Imitation Fine Art and Popular Entertainment What Arouses Emotion? Why Do Emotional Lures Work? Catharsis versus Cognitive Coping Escaping Identifying Searching for Authenticity Seeking Attachment Participating For Better or Worse 5 The Sentimental Surveying Sentimentality A Discourse of Abuse A Sentimental Journey The Sugar of Sentimentality The Comfort of an Aestheticized Sanctuary Longing for a Past as Pleasant Love and Compassion as their Own Rewards The Ironic Distance of Camp and Kitsch Social Progress Exercising Power The Sins of Sentimentality Disempowering and Harming Sentimentality’s Subjects Disempowering and Infantilizing Viewers Falsification Poor Public Policy Sense and Sentimentality 6 The Vulgar Vulgarity and its Variants Vulgarity and Fine Art A Historical Perspective Grotesques and Carnival Vulgar Porn Scatology Vulgarity and Reform Viva Vulgarity! Disgust and Delight Transgression Social Bonding Joyful Resistance Haunting and Humanness Vile Vulgarity Transgression and Suppression Ridicule and Reaction Vexing Vulgarity 7 The Violent Violence and its Variants A Violent Present A Violent Past Explaining Violent Entertainment Making Moral Judgments Excitation Transfer Simultaneous Emotional Pleasures Fear and Mastery Seeking Stimulus Everything But Violence Algorithmic Allure The Problems of Violence Purgation Does Not Work Diminishing Returns Mental Scripts of a Hostile World A Cycle of Violence An End to Violence? 8 The Horrific Horror, Terror, and Dread Sublime Terror versus Popular Horror Horror Hedonism Performative Pleasures Escape and Stimulation Transfixed Fascination Making Moral Judgments Wish Fulfillment and/or Recognition Transgressive Liberation Repetition Horror and Humor Horror, Hostility, and Hate Repression Unleashing Hatred Uncanny Uncertainty 9 The Miraculous Miracles and Marvels The Skeptical Discourse An Enchanted Universe of Miracles The Many Lures of the Miraculous Wonder Curiosity Creating Social Identity Finding Patterns and Purpose Debunking Absurdities Parodying Absurdities Escaping into Fantasy Being Confounded Spectacles of Wonder Miracles and Mirage Rejecting Rationality Vulnerability and Vultures The Wonder of it All 10 The Exotic Exoticism Explored The Exotic Discourse Exotic Enchantment Wonder Spice Seasoning Cultural Renewal Defining Difference Gaining Prestige by Association Feeling Culturally Superior Taking Symbolic Possession Being Reassured Distortion, Disparagement, and Denigration Selectivity and Distortion Inferiority Complexes Superiority Complexes Denial and Projection Exiting the Exotic 11 The Erotic Exploring the Erotic Sexual Discourse The High Culture Alibi Enjoying the Erotic Voyeurism Fetishism Sadism, Masochism, and Sadomasochism Identification Exhibitionism Queer and Queering Prohibition, Permission, and Perfection Permissiveness and Perfection Pornification Selling Sex Sex, Sin, and Suppression 12 The Spectacular Sizing Up the Spectacular The Spectacular versus Sensationalism Size Matters Wonder Thrills and Spills Immersion Ego Loss Humor Making Might Right Requiring Submission Failing to See/Failing to Feel Ignoring the Unspectacular Tedium Summarizing the Spectacular 13 The Narrative The Nature of Narrative The Modernist Rejection of Narrative Narrative Norms Narrative’s Gratifications Organizing Complexity Satisfying Curiosity Escaping into Alternative Realities Emotional Identification Everything Else The Stories We Tell The End 14 The Formulaic Recipes and Road Maps General versus Particular Formulaic Fine Art Formulae and Form Why Formulas Work Easy Communication Reducing Complexity Further Ongoing Comfort and Anxiety Innovation Reading Complexly Formulae and their Challenges Boredom Formulae and Falsity Finishing with Formulae 15 The Humorous Humor and Mirth Humor and the Haughty Humor versus Gravitas Why We Smile, Snigger, and Snort Feeling Superior Descending Incongruity Emotional Release Humor’s Disciplinary and Dark Side Anesthesia of the Heart Imposing Social Discipline Ridicule and Repression Humor and Hate Humor and Hostility References Index Today's many popular aesthetic pleasures have a very long history. Paul Duncum considers the historical critical discourses, and socio-political issues raised by aesthetic pleasures in fifteen thematic chapters. Using illustrative examples from the past, present, and across cultures, he challenges the idea of any decline of cultural standards and argues that no grounds exist for cultural pessimism. Refusing to condemn popular culture on the basis of taste, he reserves critique for the socio-political ideologies aesthetics invariably serve. Art history, film, cultural studies, and philosophical aesthetics are each employed to show that the sensory/emotional lures of today's popular culture are mostly identical to those of premodern fine art. They include the violent, the horrific, the sentimental, the exotic, the erotic, and the humorous. Some of these pleasures derive from our evolutionary biology; they are all an important part of what it means to be human, and central to understanding contemporary society. Examples are wide-ranging, including British seaside postcards, Disney films, Nazi propaganda, burlesque, modern advertising, as well as many exemplars of fine art. The book reveals fresh insights for all those studying visual culture, art history, aesthetics, media studies, and media and art education. "The aesthetic pleasures of today's popular visual culture - sentimental, violent, vulgar, spectacular, humorous, and many more - are roundly criticised and condemned in elite discourse, but this book shows that they are perennial in nature and an intrinsic part of what it is to be human"-- Provided by publisher