Topic: |
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The Future of Beauty in the Arts and
Literature
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Date and Place:
The ISSEI (International Society for the Study of European Ideas) Conference: Approaching
a New Millennium: Lessons from the Past - Prospects for the Future will take place in
Bergen, Norway, from the 14th to 18th August 2000. |
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Deadline: 1 April 2000 |
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Send to: dam@aber.ac.uk |
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| Dr. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies University of Wales Aberystwyth 1 Laura Place, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 2AU, UK Tel. ++44 1970 622835 Fax ++44 1970 622831 email: dam@aber.ac.uk |
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More Details: |
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| At this conference I will chair a workshop on The Future of
Beauty in the Arts and Literature Much of what is going on in the arts and in literature is not what I would call beautiful. I find the heritage of realism and naturalism of the 19th century problematic if it inspires yet another delving into the abyss of human psychopathology. To argue with German theatre director Gründgens: it is eminently easy to write, direct, and perform in such a way that it is ugly, or that it causes a scandal. Gründgens' words about the theatre are true also for the other arts and literature. This is a personal, subjective view, and there is a problem here, which boils down to the catch phrase "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder": beauty is somehow intangible, very subjective, beyond objective (and that means, scientific) means of gaining knowledge which dominate, and are thus favoured by, the current (western) mind-set. This mind-set, however, shows indications of change: in the booming debate on human consciousness, for example, an Internet-based seminar, extending over two weeks, and generating some 500 pages of text in printout, was specifically devoted to establishing ways of dealing scientifically with the subjective realm of the emotions, and there is basic research into neurophysiological correlates of beauty (i.e., changes of neurophysiological parameters when a subject is shown pictures deemed beautiful or not by the experimenters). Research has also shown that regarding the beauty of faces, universal patterns seem to exist: statistically speaking, we tend to agree overall whether a face shown to us at random is beautiful or not, independent of our own age, gender, race, culture, etc., or that of the individuals on the photos. Common sense would suggest that although beauty is predominantly associated with things we see, it is not limited to that one sense, or sensual experience altogether. We may well describe sounds as beautiful (classical music, for example), or the smell or taste of a favourite meal, or the touch of a specific fabric. For some of those, most languages have developed more sense-specific terms, such a delicious for taste, but the ultimate characteristic implied by those terms is the same. Intellectual stimulation can be called beautiful, or the creative acts, say, of writing a paper, a poem, or play, or of composing, painting, etc. Beyond all those manifest objects of beauty, Plato would locate the form of beauty, beauty as such. It is beauty itself, of itself, with itself, uniform, and of eternal being. All expressions of beauty have part in this form of beauty, and all expressions of beauty exist to enable the direct experience of the form of beauty, as the ultimate goal. Is Plato's philosophy relevant for us today, does it have a role in the future? In the workshop at the conference, I want to provide a broad basis for a thorough reassessment of the European traditions of beauty in the arts (fine arts, performing arts, media arts), and in literature, not as a return to some distant, and allegedly ideal past, but as a constructive means of realising the potential of the arts for the 21st century. I would like to invite interested contributors to submit an abstract of not more than one page. Deadline: 1 April 2000 |
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Dr. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe |
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