{"title":"Minority Formalism, Aesthetic Concepts, and Chuang Hua’s Crossings","authors":"Sue-Im Lee","doi":"10.1353/mfs.2021.0037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay engages philosophy of art, Adorno’s aesthetic theory, and Asian American literary studies to show that aesthetic concepts—terms describing the sensory, perceptual properties of a text—are crucial to theorizing minority formalism and minority aesthetic concepts. Using Adorno’s theory of substantial formalism to analyze Crossings (1968), a little-known Asian American novel, this essay shows that rather than being just adjectives describing the expressive qualities of a text or tropes describing its particular theoretical maneuvers, terms such as opaque, non-linear, fragmented, discordant, or dissonant are aesthetic concepts that exert political import through form.","PeriodicalId":45576,"journal":{"name":"MFS-Modern Fiction Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"MFS-Modern Fiction Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2021.0037","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This essay engages philosophy of art, Adorno’s aesthetic theory, and Asian American literary studies to show that aesthetic concepts—terms describing the sensory, perceptual properties of a text—are crucial to theorizing minority formalism and minority aesthetic concepts. Using Adorno’s theory of substantial formalism to analyze Crossings (1968), a little-known Asian American novel, this essay shows that rather than being just adjectives describing the expressive qualities of a text or tropes describing its particular theoretical maneuvers, terms such as opaque, non-linear, fragmented, discordant, or dissonant are aesthetic concepts that exert political import through form.
期刊介绍:
Modern Fiction Studies publishes engaging articles on prominent works of modern and contemporary fiction. Emphasizing historical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary approaches, the journal encourages a dialogue between fiction and theory, publishing work that offers new theoretical insights, clarity of style, and completeness of argument. Modern Fiction Studies alternates general issues dealing with a wide range of texts with special issues focused on single topics or individual writers.