Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age

Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age examines a variety of significant multidisciplinary and multicultural topics within the subject of aesthetics. Addressing the vexed relation of the arts and criticism to current political and cultural concerns, the contributors to this volume attempt to bridge the two decades-old gap between scholars and critics who hold conflicting views of the purposes of art and criticism. By exploring some of the ways in which global migration and expanding ethnic diversity are affecting cultural productions and prompting reassessment of the nature and role of aesthetic discourse, this volume provides a new evaluation of aesthetic ideas and practices within contemporary arts and letters.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Emory Elliott: Introduction: Cultural Diversity and the Problem of Aesthetics PART I. CHALLENGES TO AN AESTHETICS OF DIVERSITY Satya P. Mohanty: Can Our Values Be Objective? On Ethics, Aesthetics, and Progressive Politics Giles Gunn: The Pragmatics of the Aesthetic Winfried Fluck: Aesthetics and Cultural Studies John Carlos Rowe: The Resistance to Cultural Studies PART II. REDEFINING CATEGORIES OF VALUE AND DIFFERENCE Shelley Fisher Fishkin: Desegregating American Literary Studies Robyn Wiegman: Difference and Disciplinarity Donald E. Pease: Doing Justice to C.L.R. James's Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways Johnella E. Butler: Mumbo Jumbo, Theory, and the Aesthetics of Wholeness PART III. AESTHETIC JUDGMENT AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE Paul Lauter: Aesthetics Again? The Pleasures and the Dangers Amelia Jones: "Every man knows where and how beauty gives him pleasure": Beauty Discourse and the Logic of Aesthetics Kathleen McHugh: The Aesthetics of Wounding: Trauma, Self-Representation, and the Critical Voice Chon A. Noriega: Beautiful Identities: When History Turns State's Evidence Heinz Ickstadt: Toward a Pluralist Aesthetics Louis Freitas Caton: Afterword Index

About the Author :
Emory Elliott is University Professor at the University of California, Riverside. Louis Freitas Caton is Professor of English at Auburn University. Jeffrey Rhyne is a graduate fellow in English at the University of California, Riverside.

Review :
"The contributors to this volume all make separate, and mostly compelling, cases for the revitalization of the aesthetic in textual and extra-textual cultural productions.... Valuable for detailing [aesthetics'] continued relevance and even necessity for contemporary cultural study."--Postmodern Culture "This collection is an important project, the topics addressed by the contributors timely and crucial. Can humanities professors maintain aesthetic values without slipping into elitism? Can they execute political critique without turning ham-fisted and illiberal? Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age is an important step in establishing a middle way, drawing the humanities out of the old Culture Wars contraries and into a more productive, less fractious mode of teaching and research."--Mark Bauerlein, Emory University "Finally! A book that gets rid of the false opposition between aesthetics and multiculturalism. We live in an exciting time when a vibrant generation of artists and critics are not only championing the aesthetic but are also challenging conventional ideas about exactly what counts as the beautiful. Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age reminds us that poetics and politics often make the coziest of bedfellows."--Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University "The contributors to this volume all make separate, and mostly compelling, cases for the revitalization of the aesthetic in textual and extra-textual cultural productions.... Valuable for detailing [aesthetics'] continued relevance and even necessity for contemporary cultural study."--Postmodern Culture "This collection is an important project, the topics addressed by the contributors timely and crucial. Can humanities professors maintain aesthetic values without slipping into elitism? Can they execute political critique without turning ham-fisted and illiberal? Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age is an important step in establishing a middle way, drawing the humanities out of the old Culture Wars contraries and into a more productive, less fractious mode of teaching and research."--Mark Bauerlein, Emory University "Finally! A book that gets rid of the false opposition between aesthetics and multiculturalism. We live in an exciting time when a vibrant generation of artists and critics are not only championing the aesthetic but are also challenging conventional ideas about exactly what counts as the beautiful. Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age reminds us that poetics and politics often make the coziest of bedfellows."--Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University