The pioneering work of Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768) identified a homoerotic appreciation of male beauty in classical Greek sculpture; a fascination that had endured in Western art since the Greeks. After Winckelmann; however; sometimes the value (even the possibility) of queer beauty in art was denied. Several theorists after Winckelmann; notably the philosopher Immanuel Kant; broke sexual attraction and aesthetic appreciation into separate or dueling domains. In turn; sexual desire and aesthetic pleasure conceived as discrete categories had to be profoundly rethought by later writers.Davis argues that these disjunct domains could be rejoined by such innovative thinkers as John Addington Symonds; Michel Foucault; and Richard Wollheim; who reclaimed earlier insights about the mutual implication of sexuality and aesthetics. Addressing texts by Arthur Schopenhauer; Charles Darwin; Oscar Wilde; Vernon Lee; and Sigmund Freud; among many others; Davis criticizes modern approaches; such as Kantian idealism; Darwinism; psychoanalysis; and analytic aesthetics; for either reducing aesthetics to a question of sexuality or for removing sexuality from the aesthetic field altogether. Despite these schematic reductions; sexuality always returns to aesthetics; and aesthetic considerations always recur in sexuality. Davis particularly shows that formal philosophies of art since the late-eighteenth century have had to respond to nonstandard sexuality; especially homoeroticism; and that theories of nonstandard sexuality have drawn on aesthetics in significant ways.Many of the most imaginative and penetrating critics wrestled productively; though often inconclusively and "against themselves;" with the aesthetic making of new forms of sexual life and new forms of art made from reconstituted sexualities. Through a critique that confronts history; philosophy; science; psychology; and dominant theories of art and sexuality; Davis challenges privileged types of sexual and aesthetic creation imagined in modern culture-and still assumed today.
2011-04-23 2011-04-23File Name: B0069CX8LG
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great read!By josieI was born in Calabria and can truly relate to the contents of this novel. It was wonderful to read the dialogue written in the Sicilian dialect which is so similar to the dialect of my place of birth. The story encompasses so many aspects of family relations as they are challenged. enriched and destroyed by the political. social and underground culture of Sicily in the 1990"s. It shows the depth. strength and power of a mothers love. Its a wonderful story that I will not soon forget.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Bellissimo!By bajamotorsChe storia! Catapultati nellItalia del Sud di un secolo fa. Alla scoperta di realta che non si pensa possano essere esistite. Un esame di situazioni di vita al limite del credibile ma certamente e tristemente reali. Proprio un bel libro.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Un passo nella fossaBy girolamaIt tells the story of the love of a mother for her son. who ends up joining the wrong crowd due to ignorance and the need to escapea life of poverty and abuse.Colorfully written and heartbreaking.
