A question of perception: Bourdieu, art and the postmodern

Bourdieu and Darbel's classic study of European art museum audiences, The Love of Art (1991), remains one of the most influential academic studies of the social indices of art perception. Its findings were central to Bourdieu's on-going study of culture-mediated power relations, as found in the book Distinction (Bourdieu 1984), as well as social surveys of the behaviour of museum audiences across the world. Much in Bourdieu's account of art perception, however, has begun to appear dated and in need of supplementation. This paper will be a critical but sympathetic re-reading of Bourdieu's sociology of art perception in the light of recent criticisms of his approach. Whilst fine art and its institutions continue to function as sources of social identification and differentiation, this paper argues that the relationship between perception and stratification is somewhat looser than connoted in Bourdieu's work. Beyond the shift to a less rigid taxonomy of social formations, the immense expansion of the visual arts complex has opened up possibilities for the dissemination of art knowledge beyond the cultivated bourgeois. The erosion of boundaries between the aesthetic and the economic, between art and popular culture, are the result of processes of commodification that have placed museums alongside shopping malls within the realms of consumption and entertainment. New audiences have emerged from this mix with less dichotomized - that is, either cultivated or popular - ways of seeing culture that suggest a revision of Bourdieu's overly integrated account of class and cognition. An alternative, 'postmodern', approach to art perception is entertained, where an aesthetics of distinction is replaced by a culture of distraction, but this abstracts culture from any structural grounding. Capturing the shift to an accelerated cultural present, instead, requires a warping of Bourdieu's categories to account for broader patterns of culture and economy and the accentuation of modern visual culture.     

威廉·加斯的元小说理论和实践

美国著名语言学家、小说家、文学批评家威廉·加斯是元小说这一著名概念的提出者,他的小说理论紧密切合小说界的发展实际和自己的创作实践,在后现代小说理论家中既具很有代表性,又独树一帜。     

后现代语境下文艺美学学科研究的新探索——读曾繁仁主编的《文艺美学教程》

“文艺美学”作为一门具有原创性的新兴学科出现于20世纪80年代的中国大陆。经过近30年的发展,如今文艺美学学科已呈现出几种具有代表性的学科理论范式,而其中大多数都是文艺美学现代性转换的产物。随着后现代语境的来临,曾繁仁先生主编的《文艺美学教程》体现出一种全新的学科探索。以《文艺美学教程》一书为依据,兼及编者的其他论著,从逻辑起点、理论体系、学术特色等方面阐述本教材所体现的文艺美学思想,并凸显其理论谱系和理论贡献。     

Alter-Globalism as Counter-Hegemony: Evaluating the ‘postmodern Prince’

This article seeks to provide a critical analysis of the alter-globalisation movement as a potential ‘postmodern Prince’ as advanced by Stephen Gill. The article proposes that the social forces aligned under the rubric of alter-globalism have always had intractable difficulties articulating a postmodern Prince, and that in contrast to Gill's appropriation of Gramsci, these difficulties can be usefully understood through a reading of Gramsci which is attentive to the problems of collective political action. Recent debate among key participants at the World Social Forum (WSF) is used as a case study for analysing the possibility of formulating a common master-frame or strategy for social transformation. It is at the WSF that the problems of articulating a postmodern Prince have been most clearly confronted. It is shown that the weaknesses of alter-globalism can be understood, pace Gill, through Gramsci's own theory of social transformation as evinced in the modern Prince. This underlines the need for further investigation of the agents of progressive politics in an era of global social transformation.

Este artículo busca proveer un análisis crítico a la propuesta de Stephen Gill, sobre el movimiento alter-globalización como un potencial ‘Príncipe posmoderno’. El artículo propone que las fuerzas sociales alineadas bajo la rúbrica del alter-globalismo han tenido siempre dificultades intratables en plantear a un Príncipe posmoderno y que en contraste con Gil y su apropiación de Gramsci, estas dificultades pueden entenderse útilmente a través de una lectura de Gramsci, quien está atento a los problemas de acción colectiva política. Un debate reciente entre los participantes principales al Foro Social Mundial, (FSM) se ha usado como un estudio de caso para analizar la posibilidad de formular un marco maestro o estrategia para una transformación social. En el FSM, es donde más claramente se han confrontado los problemas de plantear a un Príncipe posmoderno. Se ha indicado que las debilidades del alter-globalismo se pueden entender, con el respeto a la opinión de Gill, a través de la propia teoría de Gramsci sobre la transformación social como se evidencia en el Príncipe moderno. Esto enfatiza la necesidad de una mayor investigación de los agentes de una política progresiva en una era de transformación social global.

     

对中国妇女参政问题的思考——以后现代女权主义为视角

本质主义的女权主义将＂女人＂等同于有生殖能力,女人基于性而有普遍性。现代女权主义理论在此基础上作出了女人们普遍接受压迫和统一的妇女解放运动的论述。后现代女权主义理论对现代女权主义基于生理性别的对女性的划分给予了颠覆,认为生理性别也是一种社会建构,女人是被论述建构和后天模仿的结果。因此解构了对妇女参政问题的认识,如参政妇女有多样性和差异性,不是所有的妇女都有参政的意识;除非有为妇女而参政的论述出现,否则参政妇女的结构位置不必然出现为妇女参政的主体位置。这些理论再次引发我们对推动妇女参政问题的深入思考,也为在政治领域中推动性别公正提供了强有力的思想武器。     

后现代心理学思想的实践取向

通过对后现代心理学思想萌生的历史考察,就后现代心理学对科学心理学的本体论和实证霸权的批判,以及对人的价值的关切和对多元化、本体化的呼唤,进行理性地概略扫描,旨在揭示和体现实际应用和职业社会实践是后现代心理学思想的重要价值取向。     

二元消解 多元共栖——论《等待野蛮人》中帝国神话的自我解构

在后现代主义文学的视野下,详细分析了“文明”与“野蛮”、“自我”与“他者”、“话语权”与“失声”这三个二元对立的等级秩序,并进一步探讨了如何消解中心、再现边缘、彻底颠覆并解构这些二元对立结构的方法。通过肯定差异性和矛盾性的同时强调二者的平等、共存关系,为深入解读库切深邃多元、开放前瞻的思想体系提供了全新的后现代视角。     

后现代的女性生命体验

女性生命体验是女性性别意识的基础和前提.女性作为一个独特的生命个体,有其特有的生命体验即对于生命的经历和感悟的过程.而体验成为后现代的重要特征,也是女性主义与后现代遭遇的必然前提.对于生与死,悲与欢,离与合的有限生命经验的体验促成了女性对于现实世界意义的无限追寻.以后现代视域的体验为视角来透视和展现女性的生命体验对于展示女性生命个体提供了一个新的尝试视角.     

后现代主义历史编纂元小说中的史学性叙事

后现代主义历史编纂元小说指称一类包含了很强理论内容、探究元语言、元历史和文本本身意义的小说,其中的史学性叙述是文学和历史哲学经过后现代主义洗礼之后相结合的产物。本文探讨二者的产生和发展中的相互关系,期望得出史学性叙述在后现代主义历史编纂元小说中的意义。     

浅谈后现代思潮对高校德育的影响

高校德育是对青年学生进行思想政治和品德的教育,是素质教育的重要组成部分,在素质教育中居于首要地位。在新的历史时期,高校的德育工作出现了许多新情况、新问题。后现代主义思潮对高校德育产生了深刻的影响,给高校德育工作带来许多新的启示。高校必须切实加强和改进这项工作,努力提高德育的针对性和实效性,在创新中实现德育的新发展。