This paper investigates two fundamental components in the phenomenology of aesthetic experience and categorization: the mutually opposite but complementary processes of ‘aestheticization’ (i.e. the turning of the non-aesthetic to the aesthetic, as a result of an individual/ collective practice of cultural sacralisation) and of ‘de-aestheticization’ (i.e. the downgrading of the aesthetic into the unaesthetic, in this case as a result of a cultural desacralisation). This investigation proceeds on the basis of the application of a theoretical framework (‘Displacement-distortion theory’), which originates in a number of recent studies on visual perception and cognitive neuroscience, and provides crucial insights into the multifaceted perceptual, affective and cognitive phenomena involved in our experience and subsequent categorization of the world in aesthetic/non-aesthetic terms. The validity of the application, here propounded, of this analytical framework from the domains of visual perception and cognitive neuroscience to that of aesthetics, is tested by the analysis of a brief poem which represents an interesting case study for the exploration of the phenomena of aestheticization and de-aestheticization: Thomas Hardy’s “Neutral Tones”.

“Displacement-distortion Theory and the Desacralization of Aesthetic Categories: The Case Study of Hardy’s ‘Neutral Tones’ ”

BECCONE, SIMONA
2015-01-01

Abstract

This paper investigates two fundamental components in the phenomenology of aesthetic experience and categorization: the mutually opposite but complementary processes of ‘aestheticization’ (i.e. the turning of the non-aesthetic to the aesthetic, as a result of an individual/ collective practice of cultural sacralisation) and of ‘de-aestheticization’ (i.e. the downgrading of the aesthetic into the unaesthetic, in this case as a result of a cultural desacralisation). This investigation proceeds on the basis of the application of a theoretical framework (‘Displacement-distortion theory’), which originates in a number of recent studies on visual perception and cognitive neuroscience, and provides crucial insights into the multifaceted perceptual, affective and cognitive phenomena involved in our experience and subsequent categorization of the world in aesthetic/non-aesthetic terms. The validity of the application, here propounded, of this analytical framework from the domains of visual perception and cognitive neuroscience to that of aesthetics, is tested by the analysis of a brief poem which represents an interesting case study for the exploration of the phenomena of aestheticization and de-aestheticization: Thomas Hardy’s “Neutral Tones”.
2015
Beccone, Simona
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/159948
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