Literature - Postmodernism, Economic Domination, and the Function of Art :: Literature Essays Literary Criticism

Postmodernism Economic Domination and the Function of Art Does aesthetical creativity relate to or influence reality? Does art ingest the capacity to heal nine? These disbeliefs seem implicit to Walker Percys perceptiveness of literature and art in general. Literature is a thought-involved process interested with communication it selves as a moral guidepost to commend society as well as correct it. Literature represents and describes it presents readers with a method of articulating and resolving problems in society. So it is clear that redescribing a world is the requisite first step towards changing it (Rushdie 18). Art, in one sense, creates its own semipolitical agenda. Percy pursues his diagnostic theory of literature having reckoned with the basic relationship between wording and life. Percy seems to answer the initial two questions posed with a resounding yes. The solvent of arts impact upon a society is not quite so easily resolved, however. Not every person writes or thinks about art with the analogous set of assumptions. In order to strike at the heart of the question what is the purpose of art? we must first identify, understand and appreciate original fundamental assumptions inquiries, mediating contexts, surrounding the political nature of art and the role of the mechanic in authentic creativity. I would like to frame my discussion inside the apparent struggle between two ideological contexts modernism and postmodernistism. development Percys diagnostic theory of literature to facilitate the discussion, we can examine how modem and postmodern assumptions attempt to shape the purpose of aesthetic creativity. Percys approach to art is inherently modern. He is concerned with unity and the true and achieving them through the creative process. modernity claims to Speak to some form of ideological absolute, a universal quality. tout ensemble things ultimately move to reveal a unified whole, a mankind bathed in Truth. R eason is the primary tool of the modernist. It is privileged above either other human faculties. Reason allows humanity to possess friendship, to know, to assimilate, to unify. Truth and knowledge are hopelessly intertwined. The search for knowledge is thus the search for truth as well. Percy mirrors this modern reverence for the power of human thought, when he claims that literature is essentially cognitive. Art is an expansion and extension of the mind. Art is thus actively involved in the search for Truth.