Art that is grounded in close observation of the everyday – think grey-washed British films, the flawed characters formed in gritty cities and ‘ kitchen sink’ paintings – has much to recommend it. Lukács, the Hungarian philosopher and critic, contrasted it favorably to the unchanging, noble heroes of modernist novels. He noted especially its truthful depiction of the relationship between the human subject and the outside world. But this view of realism stemmed from a particular moralistic purpose– an unacceptable constraint in both art and life, writes Thomas Leddy.
Everyday aesthetics is a fairly new branch of philosophy focusing on the aesthetics of everyday events, settings and activities. For Lukács, the Hungarian philosopher, historian and critic, the issue of everyday aesthetics comes up in contemporary life in three ways. Firstly, in the relationship between the human subject and the outside world, secondly, in relation to Freud's notion of the psychopathology - mental disorder - of everyday life and, thirdly, in its approach to sensory detail. In all of these areas, Lukács criticizes modernism (the ideology of modernist literature on which much of our film, TV and literature is still grounded) from a Marxist, realist perspective - stressing that the subjective and the objective are in a constant interplay to form human nature; that mental disorder is no escape from capitalist contemporary life; and that sensory detail is essential to ground art.
Join the conversation