Two Opposed Models of Approaching the Relationship between Art and Society and the Proposal of “Social-Aesthetic Constructs” as a Possibility of Mediation
The objective of this article is to investigate two
opposed models of approaching the relationship between art and society. The
first one—that of Jacques Rancière—stresses the idea of aesthetic autonomy as a
result of a historical process that began with Kant’s Critique of Judgement, reaching its most developed form in
contemporaneity, and the second model, represented here by Richard Shusterman (inspired
by John Dewey pragmatist aesthetics), focuses on the deep roots that artistic
phenomena have in society and culminates with his analysis of the hip hop
culture. Taking into account as well their respectively fruitfulness as some of
their limitations and inspired by TheodorAdorno, I propose the concept of “social-aesthetic
construct”, which is meant to be a mediation between the aforementioned opposed
models.
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