Marxist aesthetics
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Marxist aesthetics is a theory of
Marxist aesthetics overlaps with the Marxist theory of art. It is particularly concerned with art practice, with the prescribing of artistic standards that are deemed socially beneficial. This materialist and socialist orientation may be seen to invoke the traditional aims of scientific inquiry and the scientific method.
Some notable Marxist aestheticians of varying tendencies include
Not all of these figures are solely concerned with aesthetics: in many cases, Marxist aesthetics forms only an important branch of their work, depending on how one defines the term. For example, a Marxist aesthetic may be latent in Brecht's work, but he formulated his own distinct theory of art and its social purpose.
One of the chief concerns of Marxist aesthetics is to unite Marx and Engels’ social and economic theory, or theory of the social base, to the domain of art and culture, the superstructure. These two terms, base and superstructure, became an important dichotomy in
Many theorists touch upon important themes of Marxist aesthetics without strictly being Marxist aestheticians,
Visual artists, as diverse as
Probably it would be fair to say that two of the most influential writings in Marxist aesthetics in recent times, and apart from Marx himself and Lukacs, have been Walter Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man. Louis Althusser has also contributed some small but significant essays on art and his theory of ideology also impacts in this area ("Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses").
The field remains polemical, with camps of modernists, post modernists, anti modernists, the avant garde, constructivists, and socialist realists all referencing back to an ostensible Marxist aesthetic theory that would underpin their art practices by grounding an art theory.
See also
References
- ^ Tedman, Gary. (2004) "Marx's 1844 manuscripts as a work of art: A hypertextual reinterpretation." Rethinking Marxism 16.4: 427-441.
- ^ Fay, Margaret, "The Influence of Adam Smith on Marx's Theory of Alienation", Science & Society Vol. 47, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 129-151, S&S Quarterly, Inc.
- ^ Gary Tedman (2007). "Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (as hypertext) by Karl Marx". Retrieved 2016-02-08.
- ^ See notes, Margaret Fay, Gary Tedman.
- ^ See the journal Capitalism, Nature, Socialism.
- ^ Singh, Iona. (2007) "Color, Facture, Art and Design." Capitalism Nature Socialism 18.1: 64-80.
Bibliography
- Text Etc: Literary Theory: Marxist Views (formerly Poetry Magic)
- Understanding Brecht, ISBN 978-1859844182.
- Aesthetics and Politics: Debates Between Bloch, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno. 1980. Trans. ed. Ronald Taylor. London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-722-3.
- ISBN 0-8264-7691-0.
- ISBN 0-8090-3100-0.
- ---. 2000a. Brecht on Film and Radio. Ed. and trans. Marc Silberman. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-72500-6.
- ---. 2003a. Brecht on Art and Politics. Ed. and trans. Thomas Kuhn and Steve Giles. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-75890-7.
- Daly, Macdonald. A Primer in Marxist Aesthetics. London: Zoilus Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-9522028-1-3
- ISBN 0-631-16302-6.
- Marcuse, Herbert. 1978. The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics. Trans. Herbert Marcuse and Erica Sherover. Boston: Beacon Press.
- ISBN 1-905510-02-0
- Singh, Iona. 2012 "Color, Facture, Art and Design", Zero Books Archived 2019-03-01 at the ISBN 978-1-78099-629-5.
- Tedman, Gary. 2012. Aesthetics & Alienation, Zero Books. Archived 2015-12-06 at the ISBN 978-1780993010.
- Rose, Margaret A. 1988. Marx's Lost Aesthetic: Karl Marx and the Visual Arts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521369794.
- Sánchez Vázquez, Adolfo. "The Aesthetic Ideas of Marx", 1965.
- Sánchez Vázquez, Adolfo. "Art and Society: Essays in Marxist Aesthetics", 1973.
- Simon, Joshua. 2013. Neomaterialism, Sternberg Press, ISBN 978-3-943365-08-5.