The essays collected in this volume examine the multidisciplinary and multicultural nature of the subject of aesthetics. The contributors, who include Amelia Jones, Satya Mohanty, Donald E. Pease, and John Carlos Rowe, address the vexed relation of the arts and criticism to contemporary social, political, and cultural issues of ethnicity, race, class, and gender in the United States today. These essays aim to resolve some of the issues of the so-called "culture wars" by bridging the gap that has existed for two decades between scholars and critics who generally hold conflicting views of the purposes of art and criticism. Accordingly, this volume provides a serious assessment of aesthetic theory and practices within the arts and letters of our multicultural society.

About the Author
Emory Elliott is University Professor at the University of California, Riverside. Louis Freitas Caton is Professor of English at Auburn University. Jeffrey Rhyne is a graduate fellow in English at the University of California, Riverside.

Reviews
The contributors to this volume all make separate, and mostly compelling, cases for the revitalization of the aesthetic in textual and extra-textual cultural productions.... Valuable for detailing aesthetics' continued relevance and even necessity for contemporary cultural study. * Postmodern Culture *
This collection is an important project, the topics addressed by the contributors timely and crucial. Can humanities professors maintain aesthetic values without slipping into elitism? Can they execute political critique without turning ham-fisted and illiberal? Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age is an important step in establishing a middle way, drawing the humanities out of the old Culture Wars contraries and into a more productive, less fractious mode of teaching and research. * Mark Bauerlein, Emory University *
Finally! A book that gets rid of the false opposition between aesthetics and multiculturalism. We live in an exciting time when a vibrant generation of artists and critics are not only championing the aesthetic but are also challenging conventional ideas about exactly what counts as the beautiful. Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age reminds us that poetics and politics often make the coziest of bedfellows. * Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University *
The contributors to this volume all make separate, and mostly compelling, cases for the revitalization of the aesthetic in textual and extra-textual cultural productions.... Valuable for detailing aesthetics' continued relevance and even necessity for contemporary cultural study. * Postmodern Culture *
This collection is an important project, the topics addressed by the contributors timely and crucial. Can humanities professors maintain aesthetic values without slipping into elitism? Can they execute political critique without turning ham-fisted and illiberal? Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age is an important step in establishing a middle way, drawing the humanities out of the old Culture Wars contraries and into a more productive, less fractious mode of teaching and research. * Mark Bauerlein, Emory University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195146332
Author Emory Elliott
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 155mm * 28mm