Transfiguration, Art, Pathicity. Somaesthetics Reconsidered

Abstract

In this discussion piece, I will comment on the collective volume, edited by Jerold J. Abrams, Shusterman’s Somaesthetics. From Hip Hop Philosophy to Politics and Performance Art (2022). I will articulate my reflections around three main themes, which intersect the theme of several of the essays of the volume: I will first of all consider the concept of transfiguration, commenting upon the difference between Danto’s hermeneuticist perspective and Shusterman’s somaesthetic reinterpretation, with special regard to his performative experiment, the Man in Gold. Secondly, I will turn to a possible consequence entailed by this reinterpretation concerning the relation between aesthetics and art. Finally, I will turn to the controversy between somaesthetics and pathic aesthetics, and comment on a possible way to reconcile some elements of both, starting from the condition of the suffering body.

Keywords

• transfiguration
• art
• pathicity
• somaesthetics
• shusterman