Aesthetics of disaster as decolonial aesthetics: making sense of the effects of Hurricane María through Puerto Rican contemporary art

ABSTRACT

On 20 September 2017, Hurricane María made landfall on Puerto Rico causing unprecedented disaster. From that day onwards, the Puerto Rican multi-layered colonial, social and political context was further complicated by the traumatic acceleration of a human disaster via this natural disaster. This crystalized the urgency of using art as vehicle for (social) catharsis, a practice that continues to be used by individual artists, collectives, community organizations, art projects, and other art institutions on the island and abroad, through mural art, community paintings, art exhibitions, literature, music, and many other aesthetic expressions. This article examines, from a decolonial and critical cultural studies perspective, post-Hurricane María artistic expressions in contemporary art as decolonial aesthetics through the cathartic use of the frame of an aesthetics of disaster. It is argued that, an aesthetics of disaster aims to re-assert an artistic form that is able to accelerate the discursive nullification of a deeply rooted colonial, social and cultural problem by way of art as catharsis inspired by the way that Hurricane María unveiled these problems. The piece briefly contextualizes Puerto Rico, and it examines the idea of Puerto Rican contemporary art as catharsis. Then, it describes how Puerto Rican contemporary art exhibitions and associated aesthetic production are processing urgent post-hurricane issues through three illustrative pieces in exhibitions in PR and abroad in the United States (US). Lastly, decolonial aesthetics is reexamined and re-understood, informed by Édouard Glissant's view expressed in Poetics of Relation which aids to the conclusion that Puerto Rican contemporary art using the frame of an aesthetics of disaster functions as a powerful form of decolonial aesthetics.     

Young people and the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of ‘enterprise’: stories from a ‘Rust Belt’ city

ABSTRACT

In the ‘Rust Belt’ city of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, discourses of young people’s enterprise and innovation provide a counter-narrative to the prevailing material and symbolic consequences of industrial decline, job losses, and the growing insecurity of employment and income. GT Magazine is a weekly, large circulation magazine in Geelong with a significant focus on the activities and aspirations of enterprising young people. In this paper, we examine, by utilising techniques of content analysis and discourse analysis, the particular ways in which young people’s innovation and enterprise are framed and enacted in GT Magazine. Our analysis reveals that ‘youth’ and ‘enterprise’ are, in GT Magazine, given an embodied form that is powerfully marked by aestheticised, normalised enactments of gender, class and race. In doing this work, we make productive contributions to three key themes in contemporary youth studies: new work orders and the youthful self as enterprise; the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of affective labour in these new work orders; and the emerging spatial turn to examine young people's embodied, place-based experiences of employment and enterprise. We seek to make problematic the sense that solutions to multiple disruptions and crises in capitalism and the environment are to be found in young people’s enterprise. Particularly when that enterprise is given form in ways that are aestheticised, gendered, classed, individualised and responsibilised.     

德智体美劳全面培养的教育体系蕴含的理念探析

德智体美劳全面培养的教育体系是我党一以贯之的根本遵循,是为实现“两个一百年奋斗目标”和中华民族伟大复兴夯实人才基础及青少年个体成长成才的时代命题。揭示德智体美劳全面培养的教育体系的内在逻辑和其中蕴含的全面性理念、整体性理念和实践性理念,是新时代形成更高水平的人才培养体系应有之意。     

‘Rachel's not here’: Constructed dialogue in gossip

Sociolinguistic research has demonstrated that gossip is a co‐constructed phenomenon, which allows participants to establish solidarity and build alignments with each other, while evaluating an absent party. Gossip can also serve important social functions, such as helping to establish and reconfirm group norms and values. The present study provides a detailed analysis of an extended gossip episode that occurred within an institutional context: a study group interaction at a U.S. university. Our analysis shows how, in gossip, constructed dialogue both prompts and legitimizes pejorative evaluations towards an absent third party, and is actually the pivot around which group members negotiate values and norms in the process of arriving at a shared moral stance. Our analysis also demonstrates that alignment in gossip interactions is tenuous and must be continuously renewed.     

新乡土世界的美学建构——新世纪河南女作家乡土小说分析

新世纪以来,一批河南籍女性作家开始崭露头角,并取得了引人注目的成绩。面对急剧转型的时代,传统乡土叙事经验已经无法涵盖已经发生巨变的乡土社会,河南籍女作家以一种更加开放的姿态面对新的乡土世界,她们的创作把日常生活经验转化成一种叙事伦理,从而以独特的乡土感知,细致的文字表述拓宽了传统乡土小说的表现领域,更新补充了乡土小说的叙事内涵,为河南乡土文学注入了新质。     

幼儿自然色彩教育：价值、目标与对策

大自然是色彩的宝库，是幼儿自然色彩教育的最好课堂。幼儿自然色彩教育的根本目的不是掌握色彩知识或技巧， 而是通过大自然丰富多彩的色彩美激发幼儿对自然美的敏感性、好奇心，培养幼儿的审美素质，萌发幼儿热爱自然的情感，培 养幼儿健全的生命意识。幼儿自然色彩教育应让幼儿面对活的、灵动的自然色彩，在自然情境中唤醒幼儿的色彩敏锐性，激 活幼儿对美的感受力，让幼儿在一花一草的色彩变化中体悟一种生命滋养另一种生命的神奇，感悟生命的真谛，从而学会感 恩自然。     

西利亚·撒克斯特作品中灾难书写的美学意蕴

西利亚·撒克斯特是19世纪美国女作家,其作品以其所居住的海岛为背景,记录了她在岛上的生活以及周围的自然景色。她在作品中表达了对自然之美的无尽热爱,这份热爱不仅局限于传统的田园牧歌式的自然景致,也延伸到了神秘而令人胆怯的荒野之中。本文结合当代环境美学家关于“非美自然”的论述,并参考康德对于纯粹审美判断的阐释,从“距离”与“道德”两个角度对西利亚作品中关于灾难性自然景观的言说进行审美意义上诠释。西利亚坚持以自然的名义欣赏自然,希望借助康德式的纯粹审美还原审美自然灾难的合理性。此外,她选择成为灾难的“旁观者”而非“参与者”,克服了“恐惧”对于审美自然灾难所产生的阻碍,证明了欣赏自然灾难的可行性。分析西利亚作品中所体现的自然审美思想,不仅是对自然文学研究领域的进一步延伸,也是对当代环境美学理论的一次反哺与验证。西利亚对自然灾难的审美言说是一次勇敢的尝试,不仅为人类积极地理解自然灾难提供了一种可能性,也扩宽了“非美自然”的审美疆域。     

“大美配天而华不作”--王弼的自然观与魏晋美学

王弼的“大美配天而华不作”是对老庄“美在自然”思想的继承和发展。这种自然观建立在“以无为本”的哲学本体论基础之上,并从总体上表现了魏晋南北朝时代重视自然、崇尚朴拙的审美风尚。这种审美风尚具体体现在三个方面：自然天放的人格美、怡情畅神的自然美和自然天成的艺术美。     

莫言小说《四十一炮》的复调特征剖析

莫言小说《四十一炮》是典型的复调结构,小说的主人公不但是故事的叙述者,还是作者思想的寄托者。作者“用写作挽留自己的少年时光”,让罗小通“用诉说创造自己的少年时光”①,以罗小通为中心的大型对话和微型对话编织了小说中复杂的人物关系,将三条线索的故事浓缩在同一时空,小说中多种意义指向同一语词,多种风格混搭成作品统一的和声效果,恰如复调的不同声部构成和谐的整体。     

先秦美学思想对现代家具审美的启示

先秦时期诸子百家的美学思想有特定的文化环境,是中国古代美学体系建立的基础,其内容具体可归纳为文质彬彬的和美、大象无形的质美、虚静空灵的意美、形具神生的情美以及五觉维度的全美等。这些珍贵思想给现代家具审美带来重要启示,并将产生深远影响。