This book presents interdisciplinary research on the aesthetics of perfection and imperfection. Broadening this growing field, it connects the aesthetics of imperfection with issues in areas including philosophy, music, literature, urban environment, architecture, art theory, and cultural studies.
The contributors to this volume argue that imperfection has value in being open and inclusive. The aesthetics of imperfection is typified by organic, unpolished production and the avoidance of perfect finish, instead representing living and natural change, and opposing the consumerist concern with the flawless and pristine. The chapters are divided into seven thematic sections. After the first section, on imperfection across the arts and culture, the next three parts are on imperfection in the arts of music, visual and theatrical arts, and literature. The second half of this book then moves to categories in everyday life and branches this further into body, self, and the person, and urban environments. Together, the chapters promote a positive ethos of imperfection that furthers individual and social engagement and supports creativity over mere passivity.
Imperfectionist Aesthetics in Art and Everyday Life will appeal to a broad range of scholars and advanced students working in philosophical aesthetics, literature, music, urban environment, architecture, art theory, and cultural studies.
1. Imperfectionist Aesthetics, Broadening the Field and Clarifying the Definition Peter Cheyne I. Imperfection Across the Arts and Culture 2. Imperfectionist Aesthetics and the Inclusionist Ethos Peter Cheyne 3. Imperfection and the Unfinished Work Andy Hamilton 4. Art Proper, Perfectionism, and the Sacred Arts Gordon Graham II. Music 5. Revisiting the Aesthetics of Imperfection after Thirty-Five Years Ted Gioia 6. Close Enough for Jazz: Imperfection and Jazz Improvisation David Wild 7. A Social Aesthetics and Ethics of Imperfection: Insights from Karnatak Music, Jazz and Free Improvisation Lara Pearson III. Visual and Theatrical Arts 8. The Necessity of Imperfection: Philip Guston in the 1950s Karen Lang 9. Thai Theatre and the Interplay of Perfection and Imperfection Sirithorn Siriwan and Sarawanee Sukhumvada 10. Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic and Joseph Beuys’ Badewanne (1960) Eda Keskin IV. Literature 11. The Aesthetics of Weeds: A Case in Junzaburō Nishiwaki Kaz Oishi and Yasuo Kobayashi 12. The Poetics of Ruins: Matsuo Basho and Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Comparative Study Gregory Dunne 13. The Aesthetics of Perfection and Imperfection in Iris Murdoch’s An Accidental Man Fiona Tomkinson 14. The Triumph of Imperfection: Yeats’s ‘Among School Children’ Joseph S. O’Leary V. Everyday Life 15. The Role of Imperfection in Consumer Aesthetics Yuriko Saito 16. Imperfection and the Politics of Realism Thomas Docherty 17. Everyday Encounters with Aesthetic Imperfection and Perfection James Kirwan 18. Aesthetic Imperfection and Ethical Edification Lucas Scripter 19. Collecting What? Collecting as an Everyday Aesthetic Act Laura Di Summa VI. Body, Self, and the Person 20. Bodies, Functions, and Imperfections Sherri Irvin 21. Imperfection as a Vehicle for Fat Visibility in Popular Media Cheryl Frazier 22. Imperfection and Beauty of Character Glenn Parsons 23. The Self, Perfectionism, and the Value of Imperfection Christopher Hamilton VII. Urban Environments 24. Street Art, Graffiti, and Tags: The Value of Imperfection in Urban Aesthetics Andrea Baldini 25. The Aesthetics of Imperfection and Architectural Design for Memorial Sites: Four Documentation Centres on National Socialism in Germany Rumiko Handa 26. Urban Experience as Aesthetic Compromise Sanna Lehtinen 27. Grit and Urban (Im)Perfection Renee Conroy. Index
Peter Cheyne is Associate Professor in British Literature and Culture, Shimane University, Japan, and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, UK. He is the author of Coleridge’s Contemplative Philosophy (2020). Additionally, he is the editor of Coleridge and Contemplation (2017) and co-editor, with Andy Hamilton and Max Paddison, of The Philosophy of Rhythm: Aesthetics, Music, Poetics (2020).
