The Mask of Art

by Taylor, Clyde R.

• ISBN13: 9780253211927
• ISBN10: 0253211921
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"In this critique of aesthetics and the politics of representation, Taylor demonstrates astonishing breadth and depth in arguing for 'breaking the aesthetic contract' that excludes anything that does not conform to Eurocentric notions of beauty.... it brings to black studies and cultural critique an internationalism that emphasizes the richness of forms of creative expression outside the norms set by European aesthetics. Highly recommended..." -- ChoiceCultural critic Clyde Taylor exposes the concept of "art" as a tool of ethnocentricity and racial ideology. By examining various texts including The Birth of a Nation and The Cotton Club, Taylor demonstrates how rationales of "art" are used to mask personal, class, and cultural biases. Other works such as those by Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, and Spike Lee are scrutinized in terms of resistance to the dominant system of aesthetics.

Author Biography

Clyde R. Taylor, film scholar and literary/cultural essayist, is Professor at the Gallatin School and in Africana Studies, New York University. His publications include Vietnam and Black America and the script for Midnight Ramble, a documentary about early Black independent cinema.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgment
Color-Coded Art Theory	p. 3
The Art of Ethnic Cleansing	p. 38
Discipline and Punish: The Control of Cultural Meaning	p. 53
A Drowning Man Offers You His Hand: Salvaging the Aesthetic	p. 70
The Rebirth of the Aesthetic in Cinema	p. 103
The Aesthetic, the Movie	p. 124
The Ironies of Majority-Minority Discourse	p. 153
The Ironies of Aesopianism	p. 176
Radical Ethiopicism	p. 197
The Grammar of Resistance	p. 219
The Self-Authenticating Narrative	p. 240
The Imperfect Narrative of Resistance	p. 254
Daughters of the Terreiros	p. 274
Conclusion: But Is It Art?	p. 289
Notes	p. 311
Index	p. 337
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