On Ugliness

On Ugliness PDF Author: Umberto Eco
Publisher: MacLehose Press
ISBN: 9780857051622
Category : Aesthetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sumptuously illustrated and fascinatingly written - a vast store of wisdom on the nature of ugliness by one of our most celebrated contemporary thinkers.

On Ugliness

On Ugliness PDF Author: Umberto Eco
Publisher: MacLehose Press
ISBN: 9780857051622
Category : Aesthetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sumptuously illustrated and fascinatingly written - a vast store of wisdom on the nature of ugliness by one of our most celebrated contemporary thinkers.

History of Beauty and on Ugliness

History of Beauty and on Ugliness PDF Author: Professor of Semiotics Umberto Eco
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780847831760
Category : Aesthetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The first illustrated book by one of the world’s most acclaimed authors, History of Beauty presents an intriguing journey into the wonderful realm of aesthetics, exploring the ever-changing concept of the beautiful from ancient Greece to today with abundant examples. Closely examining the development of the visual arts and drawing on literature from each era, the range of Eco’s inquiry includes concepts such as the idea of love, natural inspiration versus numeric formulas, and the unattainable woman. In the mold of History of Beauty, On Ugliness is an exploration of the monstrous and the repellant in visual culture and arts. Eco’s encyclopedic knowledge and captivating storytelling combines in this ingenious study of the ugly, revealing that we often shield ourselves from what we’re most attracted to subliminally. With numerous examples of art, and quotations from the most celebrated writers and philosophers of each age, this provocative book explores in-depth the concepts of evil, depravity, and darkness in art and literature.

Ugliness

Ugliness PDF Author: Gretchen E. Henderson
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781780239316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Ugly as sin, the ugly duckling—or maybe you fell out of the ugly tree? Let’s face it, we’ve all used the word “ugly” to describe someone we’ve seen—hopefully just in our private thoughts—but have we ever considered how slippery the term can be, indicating anything from the slightly unsightly to the downright revolting? What really lurks behind this most favored insult? In this actually beautiful book, Gretchen E. Henderson casts an unfazed gaze at ugliness, tracing its long-standing grasp on our cultural imagination and highlighting all the peculiar ways it has attracted us to its repulsion. Henderson explores the ways we have perceived ugliness throughout history, from ancient Roman feasts to medieval grotesque gargoyles, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the Nazi Exhibition of Degenerate Art. Covering literature, art, music, and even the cutest possible incarnation of the term—Uglydolls—she reveals how ugliness has long posed a challenge to aesthetics and taste. She moves beyond the traditional philosophic argument that simply places ugliness in opposition to beauty in order to dismantle just what we mean when we say “ugly.” Following ugly things wherever they have trod, she traverses continents and centuries to delineate the changing map of ugliness and the profound effects it has had on the public imagination, littering her path with one fascinating tidbit after another. Lovingly illustrated with the foulest images from art, history, and culture, Ugliness offers an oddly refreshing perspective, going past the surface to ask what “ugly” truly is, even as its meaning continues to shift.

African and Diaspora Aesthetics

African and Diaspora Aesthetics PDF Author: Sarah Nuttall
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822339076
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
In Cameroon, a monumental "statue of liberty" is made from scrap metal. In Congo, a thriving popular music incorporates piercing screams and carnal dances. When these and other instantiations of the aesthetics of Africa and its diasporas are taken into account, how are ideas of beauty reconfigured? Scholars and artists take up that question in this invigorating, lavishly illustrated collection, which includes more than one hundred color images. Exploring sculpture, music, fiction, food, photography, fashion, and urban design, the contributors engage with and depart from canonical aesthetic theories as they demonstrate that beauty cannot be understood apart from ugliness. Highlighting how ideas of beauty are manifest and how they mutate, travel, and combine across time and distance, continental and diasporic writers examine the work of a Senegalese sculptor inspired by Leni Riefenstahl's photographs of Nuba warriors; a rich Afro-Brazilian aesthetic incorporating aspects of African, Jamaican, and American cultures; and African Americans' Africanization of the Santería movement in the United States. They consider the fraught, intricate spaces of the urban landscape in postcolonial South Africa; the intense pleasures of eating on Réunion; and the shockingly graphic images on painted plywood boards advertising "morality" plays along the streets of Ghana. And they analyze the increasingly ritualized wedding feasts in Cameroon as well as the limits of an explicitly "African" aesthetics. Two short stories by the Mozambican writer Mia Couto gesture toward what beauty might be in the context of political failure and postcolonial disillusionment. Together the essays suggest that beauty is in some sense future-oriented and that taking beauty in Africa and its diasporas seriously is a way of rekindling hope. Contributors. Rita Barnard, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Mia Couto, Mark Gevisser, Simon Gikandi, Michelle Gilbert, Isabel Hofmeyr, William Kentridge, Dominique Malaquais, Achille Mbembe, Cheryl-Ann Michael, Celestin Monga, Sarah Nuttall, Patricia Pinho, Rodney Place, Els van der Plas, Pippa Stein, Françoise Vergès

Ugliness

Ugliness PDF Author: Andrei Pop
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
ISBN: 9781784533557
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Ugliness is very much alive in the history of art. From ritual invocations of mythic monsters to the scare tactics of the early twentieth-century avant-garde, from the cabinet of curiosities to the identity politics of today, the ugly has been every bit as active as the beautiful, and often much more of a reality... Why then has it been so neglected? This book seeks to remedy this oversight through both broad theoretical reflection and concrete case studies of ugliness in various historical and cultural contexts. The protagonists range from cooks to psychoanalysts, from war prostheses to plates of asparagus, on a world stage stretching from ancient Athens to Singapore today. Drawing across disciplinary and cultural boundaries, the writers illuminate why ugliness, associated over the millennia with negative categories ranging from sin and stupidity to triviality and boredom, remains central to art and cultural practice.

In All Ugliness, Beauty Lies Within

In All Ugliness, Beauty Lies Within PDF Author: Debra L. Fonseca
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1493126318
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
In all ugliness, beauty lies within, representing individuals like you and me, who are willing to look deep inside ourselves to admit the truth about the ugliness in us. Do not only admit it, but address it where it demonstrates strength and strong will to overcome life's challenges without making excuses. Everyone knows that life can be unfair at times; the question is, during the midst of it, how are we going to react? Usually, in the face of adversity, one is defined in character. This book expresses a lot of heartache, as well as triumph. I am hoping that my readers will embrace the essence of its beauty although shown in darkness because all can relate. At some point or another, life has hit you with uncertainty; the fact that you are reading this book proves your triumph over life's setbacks. I am proud of you. Within these pages, I have tried to reveal the reality of bondage in its true form then turned it around for beauty for the sole propose of saving other people's lives through awareness. If I can turn ugliness into art through creative writing, then there are no limits to what you can do; just do humbly, and loveliness and grace will beseech you and everything you set your hearts to do in life will prosper.

On the Ugly

On the Ugly PDF Author: Lars Aagaard-Mogensen
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 152753586X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
This study offers an original and innovative collection of fresh approaches to the investigation of the concept of ugliness. It is divided into three parts: the idea of ugliness; Kantian conceptions of the ugly; and ugliness and art. The papers in all three sections deal with problems in the way that aesthetics has understood the concept of the ugly, in aesthetic experience, in fine art, and in contrast with the beautiful. These are new papers from a range of scholars from diverse philosophical backgrounds, and use the most recent literature in their areas of expertise. There is no other book available that collects the latest research in this field, and, as such, it will be a key contribution to recent and growing theoretical interest in the place of the ugly in aesthetics.

History of Beauty

History of Beauty PDF Author: Umberto Eco
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Explores the nature, the meaning, and the very history of the idea of beauty in Western culture; illustrated with abundant examples of painting and sculpture and lengthy quotations from writers and philosophers. Demonstrates how every historical era has had its own ideas about eye-appeal.

Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination

Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination PDF Author: Mojca Küplen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319198998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
This book presents a solution to the problem known in philosophical aesthetics as the paradox of ugliness, namely, how an object that is displeasing can retain our attention and be greatly appreciated. It does this by exploring and refining the most sophisticated and thoroughly worked out theoretical framework of philosophical aesthetics, Kant’s theory of taste, which was put forward in part one of the Critique of the Power of Judgment. The book explores the possibility of incorporating ugliness, a negative aesthetic concept, into the overall Kantian aesthetic picture. It addresses a debate of the last two decades over whether Kant's aesthetics should allow for a pure aesthetic judgment of ugliness. The book critically reviews the main interpretations of Kant’s central notion of the free play of imagination and understanding and offers a new interpretation of free play, one that allows for the possibility of a disharmonious state of mind and ugliness. In addition, the book also applies an interpretation of ugliness in Kant’s aesthetics to resolve certain issues that have been raised in contemporary aesthetics, namely the possibility of appreciating artistic and natural ugliness and the role of disgust in artistic representation. Offering a theoretical and practical analysis of different kinds of negative aesthetic experiences, this book will help readers acquire a better understanding of his or her own evaluative processes, which may be helpful in coping with complex aesthetic experiences. Readers will gain unique insight into how ugliness can be offensive, yet, at the same time, fascinating, interesting and captivating.

Look at My Ugly Face

Look at My Ugly Face PDF Author: Sara Halprin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
"A process-oriented invitation to heal a deep wound in women and in the feelings of men."-Arnold Mindell.