Art and Social Theory

Art and Social Theory provides a comprehensive introduction to sociological studies of the arts. It examines the central debates of social theorists and sociologists about the place of the arts in society and the social significance of aesthetics. Separate chapters discuss questions about the meaning of the arts in relation to changing cultural institutions and socioeconomic structures, as well as questions of aesthetic value and cultural politics, taste and social class, money and patronage, ideology and utopia, myth and popular culture, and the contested meanings of modernism and postmodernism. The book also presents lucid accounts of leading social theorists of the arts from Weber, Simmel, Benjamin, Kracauer and the Frankfurt School to Foucault, Bourdieu, Habermas, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Luhmann and Jameson. The book will be essential reading for students of sociology, cultural studies, art history and comparative literature. Contents: Introduction 1 Conceptions and Approaches Metaphysical conceptions of art Sociological conceptions of art Humanistic art history Marxist social history of artCultural studies, cultural materialism and postmodernism Institutional theories of art in analytical philosophy Anthropological studies of art Empirical sociology of contemporary arts institutions Conclusion 2 Aesthetic Value and Political ValueValue-relevance and value-neutrality Liberal-humanistic art scholarship Socialist criticism Feminist criticism Postcolonial criticism Sociology, politics and aestheticsConclusion 3 Production and Socioeconomic Structure Art and social class structure: Marxist theories Art and social evolution: Pitirim Sorokin, Arnold Hauser and Robert Witkin Patronage: the church, the monarchy and the nobility Arts markets in early modern EuropeThe state and the market in twentieth-century arts funding Conclusion 4 Consumption and Aesthetic Autonomy Kantian aesthetics Leisure, gentility and aesthetic autonomy Art and cultural capital: Pierre Bourdieu Arts consumption in the USA esthetic validity versus the sociology of taste Conclusion 5 Ideology and Utopia Origins of the critique of mass culture Art in German idealist philosophy Marx, Bloch and Lukacs Art, myth and religion in nineteenth-century high culture Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche Sublimation and civilization: Sigmund Freud and Herbert Marcuse Conclusion 6 Modernity and Modernism Aesthetic modernity after Charles Baudelaire Max Weber: rationalization and the aesthetic sphere Georg Simmel: money, style and sociabilityWalter Benjamin: mourning and the messianic Siegfried Kracauer: the redemption of physical reality Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School reassessed Conclusion 7 Postmodernism and AfterGerman aesthetic thought since 1945: from Heidegger to Habermas French aesthetic thought since 1945: literary thinking after the Marquis de Sade Postmodernism Beyond postmodernism: autonomy and reflexivity Globalization and the arts Conclusion ConclusionFurther Reading References Index.