Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 03:49:26 +0200
From: Torgeir Fjeld <torgeir-AT-iafrica.com>
Subject: Re: Bourdieu and the aesthetic


At 03:08 02.05.2003, David Gedin wrote:
>Dear list,
>
>(To think that is it exists some specific aesthetic value in it self is to 
>make the charismatic fallacy.)
>[...]
>What happens for example when some art becomes "discovered" or 
>"re-discovered" later on. Are the pieces of art only means for the 
>discoverer to change hers or his position (with it's domino-effect in the 
>field), or does it still communicate in itself? Maybe it is possible to be 
>regarding this as a kind of creative "joint venture" between the 
>discoverer and the art?

Dear David and list members,

if endowing a piece of art with some specific intrinsic value is to commit 
the (dreaded) charismatic fallacy, would it be possible to assign any 
'agency' to the artwork? is it (epistemologically) possible for an object 
to enter into a joint venture with a subject? it seems like there's two 
options here: either the artwork has some instrinc value to be discovered, 
or the intrinsic value becomes such _when it is 'discovered'_ -- that the 
intrinsic value comes into being when it is discovered. now, why was this 
particular artwork consecrated? my hunch is that Bourdieu would investigate 
the dispositions of those who make the 'discovery'. example:

in South Africa, some of the San narratives in the Blake and Lloyd 
collection (1875-1878(?)) were reprinted and made into objects of scholarly 
dispute. why did a texts such a this become such a consecrated object? text 
as per ps.

the critical schools of formalism and new criticism must have been 
instrumental in the selection, no?

best,
torgeir

                 *

                Dia!kwain:
         ___ THE BROKEN STRING ___

         (Lament. Sung by xää-ttì'ñ after the death of his friend, the 
magician and
         rain-maker, |nuìn|kúï-ten, who died from the effects of a shot he had
         received when going about, by night, in the shape of a lion.)

         People were those who
         Broke for me the string,
         Therefore,
         The place became like this to me,
         On account of it,
         Because the string was that which broke for me.
         Therefore,
         The place does not feel to me,
         As the place used to feel to me,
         On account of it.
         For,
         The place feels as if it stood open before me,
         Because the string has broken for me.
         Therefore,
         The place does not feel pleasant to me,
         On account of it.


Torgeir Fjeld
mailto:torgeir-AT-iafrica.com
http://home.no.net/torgfje/
Home: (+47) 22 59 25 55
Mob.: (+47) 92 86 16 94


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