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Title: Art for Art's Sake & Literary Life: How Politics and Markets Helped Shape the Ideology & Culture of Aestheticism 1790-1990 (Stages) by Gene H. Bell-Villada, Michael (Series Editor) Holquist, Warren (Series Editor) Motte, Gerald (Series Editor) Prince, Patricia Meyer (Series Editor) Spacks ISBN: 0-8032-1260-7 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: June, 1996 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Great book with 2 major flaws
Comment: Elegantly written, thought-provoking, abrasive, and immensely informative, Bell-Villada's essay is nonetheless affected by two important flaws: its relative lack of focus, especially toward the end of the book, and its rigid application of a left v. right girdle. Bell-Villada obviously believes that the left is always good and progressive, with the possible exception of Joseph Stalin, whereas the right and the center are innately deficients, both morally and intellectually, for they either call for a return to the past or for a blind defense of the statu quo. The problem here is theoretical. Arguably, the milieu of artists is ill suited for this kind of Manichean mutilation. Many artists, in modern times, have adopted syncretic political dispositions comprising ingredients such as contempt for the statu quo and rejection of dominant values (especially utilitarianism), this leading them either to fascism or to bolchevism, with a great deal of transactions between the two (it is significant that Bell-Villada does not have much to say about Ezra Pound!). Most fascists were also revolutionary and anti statu-quo: in fact, many were attempting to revitalize socialism. Rather than using only "left v. right", Bell-Villada should have added other variables such as "romantic v. enlightenment" and "liberal v. anti-liberal", and use them all with a great deal of flexibility.