{"title":"Carceral Aesthetics Justified","authors":"Michael Kelly","doi":"10.1353/afa.2022.0041","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Nicole Fleetwood’s recent book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, is distinctive because she engages with “carceral aesthetics,” yet she does not provide a justification for it. I think Herbert Marcuse is right, however, that we must justify aesthetics in relation to any space where human misery reigns. Carceral aesthetics can be justified in four ways: the etymology of aesthetics; its indispensability in prisons because it is denied there; a philosophical genealogy of aesthetics as a response to injustice; and the bond between prison art and carceral aesthetics as seen from the perspective of prison artists. Such justification only strengthens Fleetwood’s case for the importance of prison art.","PeriodicalId":44779,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/afa.2022.0041","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, AMERICAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:Nicole Fleetwood’s recent book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, is distinctive because she engages with “carceral aesthetics,” yet she does not provide a justification for it. I think Herbert Marcuse is right, however, that we must justify aesthetics in relation to any space where human misery reigns. Carceral aesthetics can be justified in four ways: the etymology of aesthetics; its indispensability in prisons because it is denied there; a philosophical genealogy of aesthetics as a response to injustice; and the bond between prison art and carceral aesthetics as seen from the perspective of prison artists. Such justification only strengthens Fleetwood’s case for the importance of prison art.
摘要:妮可·弗利特伍德(Nicole Fleetwood)的新书《标记时间:大规模监禁时代的艺术》(Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration)与众不同,因为她参与了“监禁美学”,但她没有为其提供理由。然而,我认为赫伯特·马尔库塞是对的,我们必须证明美学与人类苦难统治的任何空间的关系。从美学的词源学角度出发,可以从四个方面来证明古典美学的合理性;它在监狱里是不可或缺的,因为在监狱里得不到它;作为对不公正的回应的美学的哲学谱系;以及从监狱艺术家的角度看监狱艺术与监狱美学之间的联系。这样的辩解只会加强弗利特伍德对监狱艺术重要性的论证。
期刊介绍:
As the official publication of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture of the Modern Language Association, the quarterly journal African American Review promotes a lively exchange among writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences who hold diverse perspectives on African American literature and culture. Between 1967 and 1976, the journal appeared under the title Negro American Literature Forum and for the next fifteen years was titled Black American Literature Forum. In 1992, African American Review changed its name for a third time and expanded its mission to include the study of a broader array of cultural formations.