The New Aestheticism

The rise of literary theory spawned the rise of anti-aestheticism, so that even for cultural theorists, discussions concerning aesthetics were often carried out in a critical shorthand that failed to engage with the particularity of the work of art, much less the specificities of aesthetic experience. This book introduces the notion of a new aestheticism--"new" insofar as it identifies a turn taken by a number of important contemporary thinkers towards the idea that focussing on the specifically aesthetic impact of a work of art or literature has the potential to open radically different ways of thinking about identity, politics and culture.

John J. Joughin is Reader in English at the University of Central Lancashire. Simon Malpas is Lecturer in English at the Manchester Metropolitan University.