Popular Pleasures

Today's many popular aesthetic pleasures have a very long history. Paul Duncum considers the historical critical discourses, and socio-political issues raised by aesthetic pleasures in fifteen thematic chapters. Using illustrative examples from the past, present, and across cultures, he challenges the idea of any decline of cultural standards and argues that no grounds exist for cultural pessimism. Refusing to condemn popular culture on the basis of taste, he reserves critique for the socio-political ideologies aesthetics invariably serve.
Art history, film, cultural studies, and philosophical aesthetics are each employed to show that the sensory/emotional lures of today's popular culture are mostly identical to those of premodern fine art. They include the violent, the horrific, the sentimental, the exotic, the erotic, and the humorous. Some of these pleasures derive from our evolutionary biology; they are all an important part of what it means to be human, and central to understanding contemporary society. Examples are wide-ranging, including British seaside postcards, Disney films, Nazi propaganda, burlesque, modern advertising, as well as many exemplars of fine art.
The book reveals fresh insights for all those studying visual culture, art history, aesthetics, media studies, and media and art education.

Paul Duncum is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, USA, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

List of Illustrations
Introduction
But What is Aesthetics?
And What is Popular?
Popular Pleasures and Politics
Previous Attempts
So What's Different Here?
The Mind/Body Context
Scope and Outline
Chapter 1: A Realistic Style
What is Realism?
Idolatry and Ideology
The Search for Realism
Painting
Screen Imagery
The Pleasures of Realism
Making Comparisons
Appreciating the Skill
Evaluating Realism is Easy
Pulling Back the Curtain
Realism and Reality
When Too Much Realism is Bad
When Seeing Shouldn't be Believing
Fake versus the Bona Fide
Veridical, Virtual, and Verifiable
Chapter 2: The Illusionistic
Illusion versus Realism
Magic, Miracles and the Devil
The Persistence of Illusion
Trompe-l'oeil
Three-Dimensional Movies
Optical Illusion Devices
Stage Magic
Magic, Wonder and Mischief
Being Deceived
Being in the Know
Conflating Realism with Illusion
Illusion and Delusion
Illusion and Life
Chapter 3: The Bright and Busy
Terms and Taste
The Doctrine of Decorum
Reason and Restraint
Modernist Minimalism
The Relativity of Restraint
Serious versus Superficial Purpose
Brightness and Business
Delighting the Eye
Enhancing the Ordinary
Resisting Restraint
Bright, Busy and Biology
The Seriousness of Selling
Bright, Busy and Business
Chapter 4: The Highly Emotional
An Empire of Emotions
Emotion versus Emotionalism
The Rhetoric of Emotions versus the Aesthetics of Emotions
The Theory of Emotional Rhetoric
The Pictorial Practice of Rhetoric
The Rise of Sentiment
Rejecting Rhetoric
The Rise of Romanticism
Expression versus Imitation
Fine Art and Popular Entertainment
What Arouses Emotion?
Why Do Emotional Lures Work?
Catharsis versus Cognitive Coping
Escaping
Identifying
Searching for Authenticity
Seeking Attachment
Participating
For Better or Worse
Chapter 5: The Sentimental
Surveying Sentimentality
A Discourse of Abuse
A Sentimental Journey
The Sugar of Sentimentality
The Comfort of an Aestheticized Sanctuary
Longing for a Past as Pleasant
Love and Compassion as their Own Rewards
The Ironic Distance of Camp and Kitsch
Social Progress
Exercising Power
The Sins of Sentimentality
Disempowering and Harming Sentimentality's Subjects
Disempowering and Infantilizing Viewers
Poor Public Policy
Sense and Sentimentality
Chapter 6: The Vulgar
Vulgarity and its Variants
Vulgarity and Fine Art
A Historical Perspective
Grotesques and Carnival
Vulgar Porn
Scatology
Vulgarity and Reform
Viva Vulgarity!
Disgust and Delight
Transgression
Social Bonding
Joyful Resistance
Haunting and Humanness
Vile Vulgarity
Transgression and Suppression
Ridicule and Reaction
Vexing Vulgarity
Chapter 7: The Violent
Violence and is Variants
A Violent Present
A Violent Past
Explaining Violent Entertaiment
Excitation Transfer
Simultaneous Emotional Pleasures
Fear and Mastery
Seeking Stimulus
Everything But Violence
Algorithmic Allure
The Problems of Violence
Purgation Does Not Work
Diminishing Returns
Mental Scripts of a Hostile World
A Cycle of Violence
An End to Violence?
Chapter 8: The Horrific
Horror, Terror, and Dread
Sublime Terror versus Popular Horror
Horror Hedonism
Performative Pleasures
Escape and Stimulation
Transfixed Fascination
Making Moral Judgments
Wish Fulfillment and/or Recognition
Transgressive Liberation
Repetition
Horror and Humor
Horror, Hostility and Hate
Repression
Unleashing Hatred
Uncanny Uncertainty
Chapter 9: The Miraculous
Miracles and Marvels
The Skeptical Discourse
An Enchanted Universe of Miracles
Wonder
Curiosity
Creating Social Identity
Finding Patterns and Purpose
Debunking Absurdities
Parodying Absurdities
Escaping into Fantasy
Being Confounded
Spectacles of Wonder
Miracles and Mirage
Rejecting Rationality
Vulnerability and Vultures
The Wonder of It All

Chapter 10: The Exotic
Exoticism Explored
The Exotic Discourse
Exotic Enchantment
Wonder
Spice Seasoning
Cultural Renewal
Defining Difference
Feeling Culturally Superior
Taking Symbolic Possession
Being Reassured
Distortion, Disparagement and Denigration
Selectivity and Distortion
Inferiority Complexes
Superiority Complexes
Denial and Projection
Exiting the Exotic
Chapter 11: The Erotic
Exploring the Erotic
Sexual Discourse
The High Culture Alibi
Enjoying the Erotic
Voyeurism
Fetishism
Sadism, Masochism and Sadomasochism
Identification
Exhibitionism
Queer and Queering
Prohibition, Permission, and Perfection
Permissiveness and Perfection
Pornification
Selling Sex
Sex, Sin and Suppression
Chapter 12: The Spectacular
Sizing Up the Spectacular
The Spectacular versus Sensationalism
Size Matters
Wonder
Thrills and Spills
Immersion
Ego Loss
Humor
When Might Makes Right
Requiring Submission
Failing to See/ Failing to Feel
Ignoring the Unspectacular
Tedium
Summarizing of the Spectacular
Chapter 13: The Narrative
The Nature of Narrative
The Modernist Rejection of Narrative
Narrative Norms
Narrative's Gratifications
Organizing Complexity
Satisfying Curiosity
Escaping into Alternative Realities
Emotional Identification
Everything Else
The Stories We Tell
The End
Chapter 14: The Formulaic
Recipes and Road Maps
Formulaic Fine Art
Formulae and Form
Why Formulae Work
Easy Communication
Reducing Complexity Further
Ongoing Comfort and Anxiety
Innovation
Reading Complexly
Formulae and their Challenges
Boredom
Formulae and Falsity
Finishing with Formulae
Chapter 15: The Humorous
Humor and Mirth
Humor and the Haughty
Humor versus Gravitas
Why We Smile, Snigger and Snort.
Feeling Superior
Descending Incongruity
Emotional Release
Humor's Disciplinary and Dark Side
Anaesthesia of the Heart
Imposing Social Discipline
Ridicule and Repression
Humor and Hate
Humor and Hostility
References
Index