Kant's Cant vs. Post-Modern Candor

I thought the Wysocki article was excellent (not objectively speaking, but in a sticky, relativized way). I have always found Kant immensely unpalatable exactly because his valorization of the abstract universal does damage to the contingent particular (that is, the complicated animal we happen to be). Wysocki's summarization of Kant's central aesthetic claim is admirably clear: "A judgment of beauty for Kant, then, is a disinterested and universal judgment that finds universal form in the form of some particular object or person" (163). These notions of the "disinterested and universal" fit quite harmoniously within an early modern and primarily Newtonian worldview, but we are children of Quantam Theory and Relativity. The universe itself is riddled with quirks and quarks, and even Einstein's geometric dream of reality seems rather old-hat. And this is progress, in a way. The values of disinterestedness and universality are basically authoritarian in nature. If we know the "one, true nature" of the human species, then diversity disappears -- difference transforms into deviation. The Norm is deified. All hail the Norm.

In any case, I think this project of deconstructing the basic categories of aesthetic evaluation is a valuable one, and I plan to incorporate it (in manageable bits) into English 1000. My second assignment (which has to do with analyzing popular advertisements in relation to the Adbuster's parodies) encourages exactly this type of thinking. By requiring students to compare two advertisements, I think they will begin to dissect the particulars, moving away from general impressions toward the "sticky" weirdness of the images themselves. During the lead-up to this assignment, I want to focus on the types of approaches mentioned in the Wyscoki article. I want to show students how an image can be approached from a formalist, aestheticized perspective and what types of results this leads to. I also want to suggest the problems, limitations and dangers of this type of perspective, then move towards a more culturally critical approach. I think this movement will reveal the real implications of each approach, giving students a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and vocabularies involved in the total discourse. Though I could not hope to be comprehensive in any way due to time constraints and my own limited knowledge, I think a great deal can be achieved.