The symptom of beauty
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The symptom of beauty
（Essays in art and culture）
Reaktion, 1994
- : pbk
Available at 10 libraries
Note
Bibliography: p. 229-232
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780948462535
Description
Seeking to define beauty, the author observes that it is not an objective thing, but a generic term for an unspecifiable number of psychological experiences in the mind of the beholder. She considers what these experiences are, what causes them, and how they manifest themselves as a notion of beauty. Pacteau's analysis extends from the classical ideals of beauty, through Renaissance poetry to the recent formulations of Hollywood. Using psychoanalytic theory, in which the term "symptom" is indicative of repression, she also examines Jean-Paul Goude's photographs of Grace Jones and charts Andre Breton's futile attempt to preserve his "love at last sight" for a passer-by. The book is an attempt to describe the mise-en-scene of beauty within a particular field of represention - that of the beauty of a woman.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780948462542
Description
For a woman in the Western world, there is no escaping beauty. Either she possesses it, or she lacks it. If she lacks it, she may hope to gain it. If she already has it, she will certainly lose it. But what is 'it'? Not an objective thing, Francette Pacteau tells us, but a generic term for an unspecifiable number of psychological experiences in the mind of the observer. What these experiences are, what causes them, and how they manifest themselves as a notion of beauty is the subject of this book. Less interested in the contingent object of desire than the fantasy that frames it, Pacteau considers the staging of the aesthetic emotion. Her analysis extends from the Classical ideals of beauty, through Renaissance poetry to the recent formulations of Hollywood. Her book is an ambitious attempt to describe the mise-en-scene of beauty within a particular field of representations that of the beauty of a woman.
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