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.
Lukács stresses that the subjective and the objective are in a constant interplay to form human nature and our experience of the world.
Lukács’ first critique of modernism is that it does not portray human development as an interplay (a dialectic) between the subjective self and the objective world; it stresses a static notion of human nature over a dynamic one. The central character battles through a changing and adverse world, but overcomes his or her problems through the strength of a fundamental human nature. In this way, modernism implicitly argues that humans have such an unchanging human nature. This nature is described as being "thrown-into-being" by Heidegger. It is the experience of being ontologically alone: our essential and existential solitariness.
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