Reading Dystopias Aesthetically
Some thoughts on the didactic-aesthetic labour of every theorist on cultural products
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/tn.v7i1.28910Keywords:
aesthetics, dystopia, politics, interpretationAbstract
This paper aims to reflect upon how authorised readings of fictional works place them in our cultural landscape. And it does so by exploring how critical views assign value to the products they comment on. When choosing certain aspects of cultural products instead of others, when praising some of their effects as the predominant function they fulfil, critics and theoreticians are helping to shape societal views on what is valuable and why. That can be made explicit by isolating a cultural genre and paying attention to its conceptualisations. Recent studies on dystopia have focused on the potential politics implicit in every fictional work belonging to the genre. Most academics agree in depicting dystopias as cognitive, implying a political critique, and that reading seems enough to give value to a product that could be used and thought of differently, according to a different value scale. What are we missing when understanding cultural assets that can prompt aesthetic experiences in this way? Which aspects of the aesthetic are we valuing? Which ones are we underestimating? Could we look at them differently? How so?
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